Sharing expectations for the tourism markets of Kazakhstan and the CIS, Orhan Sancar notes that with destinations like Thailand and Vietnam coming into play, Kazakhstan has evolved into a 12-month market situation. Sancar stated, "For 2024, we plan to bring 100-110 thousand passengers from Kazakhstan, of which 60-70% will go to Vietnam and Thailand, and 30-40% to Türkiye. Kazakhstan's package tour market is approximately 1 million, which is not a bad figure considering the country's population of 15 million."
"Rising demand for Vietnam and Thailand"
Sancar provided information that out of the 850 thousand package tours in the Kazakhstan market, 600 thousand are conducted by tour operators PEGAS, ANEX, FUN&SUN, and Kompas. He said, "The rest are carried out by various other companies, big and small. Türkiye leads the Kazakhstan market with 256 thousand passengers and a 30% market share. Following Türkiye, the UAE has 175 thousand passengers and a 21% share, Egypt has approximately 175 thousand passengers and a 21% share, Thailand has 123 thousand passengers and a 15% share, and Vietnam follows with 62 thousand passengers and a 7% share. Due to flight distance, the UAE was the largest destination here. There are many airlines flying between Kazakhstan and the UAE. However, with competitive prices entering the market, Thailand and Vietnam Türkiye leader of the market. Currently, the biggest trend in Kazakhstan is Vietnam and Thailand."
Sancar also provided information about the 2024 flight plans between Türkiye and Kazakhstan, emphasizing:
"This year, 450 thousand seats were planned from Kazakhstan to Türkiye. Due to the 'open skies agreement' between Türkiye and Kazakhstan, Turkish Airlines can fly anywhere here without restrictions. Turkish Airlines has an intermediary institution here that distributes seat capacity to tour operators. Out of this capacity, 400 thousand are for Antalya, approximately 30 thousand for Bodrum, and the rest for Istanbul. THY, Air Astana, Pegasus, and Scat operate a total of 3-4 flights between Türkiye and Kazakhstan daily.
"We expect 15 percent increase in CIS markets"
Finally, sharing expectations for the overall CIS market, Orhan Sancar emphasized the following points:
"We expect a much better season in Russia and CIS countries than in 2023. Our expectation is a 15% growth. After the pandemic, in 2022, all tour operators and hotels made a tremendous amount of money from this countries. In 2023, however, due to the Russia-Ukraine war and subsequent sanctions, we had a season that below our expectations in Russia. The expectation was 4.5 million, but we couldn't reach it. 2024 looks better because there are more reasonable prices. The discounts made during the early booking period had a significant impact. This year, 4.5 million passengers were planned from Russia to Antalya. Already, 35% of the capacity has been sold. The rest will also be sold very comfortably in the coming period."
