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Chicken and egg dishes are again on the menus of Turkish hotels, reported
BANKO correspondent Alina Gordeeva, from Palandoken on January 29th.
‘Hotels in Turkey did not offer chicken dishes to their tourists not because
of possibility of infection - but rather for the psychological comfort of
customers’, said Ufuk Dinler, Director of Erzurum Institute of Veterinary
Research, who controlled the epidemiological situation in the country.
He also emphasized that ‘the last case of wild bird death from bird flu was
registered on January 2nd 500 kilometers from Palandoken, after which the
veterinary control service took all necessary preventive measures. Thus,
domestic birds were killed in the rivers and lakes in order to avoid their
contact with wild species. No cases of bird flu infection were registered at
poultry plants in Turkey as industrialized rearing is carried out indoors,
which practically excludes the possibility of infection spread. And as
hotels serve this chicken meat tourists going to Palandoken do not risk
their health. The possibility of infection is 0%. Therefore, chicken meat is
again in menus of our restaurants’.
Nevertheless, massive coverage of the problem in the media caused a drop
in demand for Turkish resorts. Therefore, at the moment Russian tour
operators and their partner companies in Turkey have to take ‘preventive
measures’.
In order to stimulate further demand, tour operators have also reduced
charter traffic; at the beginning of the season there were three weekly
charter chains – two of them initiated by PAC Group and one by TEZ TOUR. At
the moment tour operating companies are negotiating only two charter chains
for the two first weeks of February.
Meanwhile, Ilia Itkin, General Director of PAC Group commented on the
situation as follows: ‘for skiers the situation is favourable now – weather
at the resort is fantastic – lots of snow and very sunny. Moreover we have
had to reduce prices. For example, a week’s tour with the flight on February
5th including ski-pass and equipment rent costs $399 instead of a planned
$556. When mass media loses their interest in bird flu subject thus bringing
back the demand we will increase traffic volume.’
