Wed in Turkey this season

Murtaza Kalender, CEO, Travelshop Turkey, says Indians have responded very well to their tours and the wedding crowd and honeymooners are now their target market.

I’ve been in the Indian market since 2005. This time around, I'll be going to New Delhi, Chennai Hyderabad, Mumbai, Bengaluru and we are also planning for Kolkata. India is a very good market and the Indian travellers are very receptive. I often tell my friends that in India, every state is like a different country. We increased arrivals by 35% in 2014 com- pared to 2013 from India which is a very huge growth. When we started in 2005, we had 400 clients coming in from India and now we have 10000 clients from India and we are only growing.

We are already doing MICE and leisure and now we are trying to get wedding planners to Turkey. So, we are targetting the wedding crowd and also honeymooners. We want this crowd to experience various activities like hot air ballooning in Cappadocia, the Turkish bath and private yacht charters.

How closely do you work with Indian agents?

Indian agents are very friendly. We have an online website wherein Indian agents can register and when they register, they get agency prices. The roadshows are also a way to familiarise agents about what Turkey has to offer. We are the only company doing hop- on hop-off bus tours and in most countries, they only do one city, we do such tours all over Turkey. We have flexible bus tours, they can make their own itineraries. These roadshows will possibly help to give the best information that we have. This is also helpful for people who don't know much about Turkey and we try to show them what the various destinations have to offer.