Turkish Online Travel Market

Multinational or local companies, which model will succeed in Turkey

Devrim Dirik ddirik10@gsb.columbia.edu

Columbia Business School

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1. Objectives

This paper analyses Turkish online travel market and viability of local and global business models.

Online travel market which involves selling hotels, airline tickets, packages via a specially designed

web site is the key market of this analysis. The market has a very wide description and setting the

borders is difficult due to sophisticated behavior of the consumers. According to Pearson Dictionary

online travel is defined “The acquisition of information and the purchase of travel-related services

from businesses selling on the Internet”. Expedia, Priceline, Orbitz, Tatil.com, Tatilsepeti.com etc. are

selected companies which represent operators in this market.

Due to limited reports and data about the Turkish market, interviews with market experts and

company representatives will be key resource in the analysis. Porter’s Five Forces is used to analyze

competition in the industry. Special characteristics of the industry, challenges and opportunities in

the market and future expectations regarding viability of business models will be key focus areas.

This analysis concludes that, Turkish market will be dominated by local players in the medium term.

Multinational players will develop strategic partnerships with local operators to penetrate into the

market. This will accelerate their brand building process, but stand alone viability in the medium run

is difficult because of specific challenges of the Turkish market. In the long run, market penetration of

international players is inevitable due to their scale and operational advantages.

2. Online Travel Market in Turkey

Internet and Turkey

Backed by strong economic growth, Internet industry has been developing fast in the last years in

Turkey. Latest figures show that the number of Internet users reached 26.5 million users, 35% of total

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population (Exhibit 1b). In the number of users, the country ranks as the 14th

in the world (Exhibit 1a).

Although broadband started in 2003 the number of broadband subscribers reached 5.7 million as of

December 2008 (Exhibit 1c). As Internet penetrates the mass market further, e-commerce has also

observed significant growth and it is expected to reach $8.9 billion in 2009 with a 61% year on year

growth according to estimations of EBay Turkey (Exhibit 4). Global e-commerce players have started

to strengthen their local presence in line with growing market. In 2006, Ticketmaster acquired Biletix

and Google opened Turkish office, one year later EBay bought minority stake in GittiGidiyor.com, a

Turkish online marketplace. In January 2008, German based networking company XING acquired

cember.net, the leading online business network. (Exhibit 2) Among the other global companies,

Facebook showed a spectacular success in Turkish market. As of July 2009, Facebook has 12.4 million

members in Turkey with a 257.4% growth in the last 12 months and that makes Turkey the third

biggest market of the company (Exhibit 3).

According to a study conducted by GfK Turkey in 2006, Internet users belong to upper level of income

and socio economic status (22% of users are university graduates, 39% speaks English, and 77% is less

than 34 years old). Although Internet usage is expected to penetrate into the lower level of the

socioeconomic pyramid in line with rapid growth, Internet users will remain a lucrative market to

focus on.

Online travel market

Despite the growth in e-commerce, global online companies remained hesitant about Turkey and

none of them have entered the market so far. As income levels of Turkish citizens increase day by day

and holiday habits of Turkish people are changing, the online travel market grows. Detailed analysis

regarding characteristics of the market is given in the following sections of the report. Size of Turkish

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online travel market is very difficult to estimate as there are neither official statistics nor any

published reports about the industry. Euromonitor International (Euromonitor) publishes annual

industry reports about domestic, inbound and outbound tourism flows in Turkey and these reports

merged with market experts’ estimations will be used as a basis for further analysis.

According to Euromonitor, there were 20.7 million domestic trips with a total value of 7 billion

Turkish Lira-TL (1 USD ≈ 1.5 TL) in 2007. Expenditure per visit has been declining since 2003 and this

trend is expected to continue due to rising competition among tour operators, hotels, airline and

coach companies. (Exhibit 5a) Outgoing tourism market has also showed significant growth. The

number of outgoing tourists increased by 5% and reached 8.7 million in 2007. The value of the

market is around 3 billion TL. (Exhibit 5b) Turkey is a very attractive tourism destination and it is

attracting more and more tourists every year. However assuming that incoming tourists are using

local agents or companies in their home country to organize their trips, this market is out of scope of

this study.

Interviews conducted with local industry experts confirmed Turkish domestic travel market in line

with Euromonitor’s estimations. However, there are sizable differences in outgoing market. Especially

expenditure per visit value is very difficult to confirm because 349 TL per visit seems very low for an

outgoing visitor.

Definition of online travel bring additional burden while estimating the size of the market in Turkey.

Turkish Airlines, local coach companies, rental car companies, local and international hotels are

collecting a considerable amount of their revenues through their e-commerce operations. According

to the field research conducted by Nielsen for Google Turkey in 2009 (Nielsen field research), 23% of

hotel guests are using Internet in their reservations. Share of online reservations of Turkish Airlines is

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around 10% and this will contribute around 100 million TL to the market. Counting these companies’

revenues will increase share of online travel in the total market. This paper analyses operational

advantages of a local and international online travel companies. Therefore previously cited

companies and their revenues will be kept aside. Revenues of companies which are acting as middle

men to promote travel products (flight, hotel, car rental and other services) online will be key focus

area of this study. If a customer starts his or her transaction online but finishes offline, this

transaction will be also included in Turkish online travel market. According to these assumptions, the

size of online market is estimated around 300,000 trips with 1.2 billion TL (app. 400 TL per trip) in

2008. The figure is still very controversial because of unique consumer behavior in Turkish market.

Special Characteristics of Turkish Travel Market

Having a second small vacation homes or chalets to spend the summer in coastal regions of Turkey is

very widespread phenomena among high and mid income levels of Turkish society. This tendency

curbed development of Turkish travel market. However introduction of all inclusive packages,

increased exposure to Western lifestyles, rise of historical tourism and improved relationship with

neighbors (e.g. Greece, Syria etc.) and introduction of low cost airlines with the positive effect of

flexible payment options (zero interest rate up to one year installment opportunities by credit cards)

have driven many Turks to travel more. Tour operators started to focus on middle income consumer.

Discounts to early birds in all inclusive packages have become very popular in the market. Tour

operators adopted Internet very quickly and started to use Internet for informational and

promotional purposes rather than for online transactions. As a result, selling travel packages online

has become a widespread phenomenon.

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Traditional package holidays are very common in Turkish market. These packages are usually

prepared by travel agents and tour operators. For domestic travelers, packages are usually all-

inclusive, combining transportation and accommodation components; for outgoing travelers

packages include transportation, accommodation, local guidance and even visa handling for the

target country. Travelers usually have no flexibility, package holidays are predetermined. Packages

are also offered on the Internet but offline transaction is still the major part of the deal.

Turkish travelers are lookers more than buyers; they research online but prefer offline systems to

purchase a product. In a typical purchasing action, a customer conducts research online about

different alternatives. After selecting the service he or she sends an inquiry via a form to buy a

package. A follow up call from the agent does not finalize transaction and the customer usually visits

physical office of the agent. The process is very wide among online travelers. According to the Nielsen

field research, only 20% of customers finalize their acquisition via Internet and 71% of them visit the

travel agency to buy a travel package. Customers who are not purchased online stated that they

wanted one to one interaction with the customer representative before reaching a final decision

(53%). In addition to that 38% of them finalized the transaction offline because of their concern

about personal security and trust for online purchases. Lack of fully online transactions is the main

reason which curbs global players’ chance of viability in the market.

Porter’s Five Forces will be used to understand the competitive dynamics in the industry further.

Industry Analysis (Porter’s Five Forces)

Bargaining power of suppliers: Airline companies have very high bargaining power because online

travel operators have not reached a scale which will force these companies. Although private airlines

captures considerable amount of market share, Turkish Airline’s market share is still more than 50%.

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In addition to that, 80% of ticket sales of Turkish airlines are still made via local travel agents. An

online traveler will not able to compete with these travel agents because of ongoing relationship of

these agents with corporate and individual customers. This means that with their limited size, online

travel companies are unable to exert pressure on airlines to receive additional discounts. Car rental

companies usually use their own websites and offline channel to sell their services. Existing online

travel companies do not offer car rental products. On the other hand, hotel market is much more

fragmented with thousand of hotels spread all over Turkey. In domestic market, online travel

companies are able to bargain for special discounts i.e. online travel companies are more powerful

against hotels.

Bargaining power of buyers: Due to transparency of Internet, customers are becoming more and

more powerful. Although threat of substitute product is low, the key problem is retaining customers.

There are no network effects, cost of multi homing is almost zero and price is key decision in

purchasing decision. Existing local companies invest in their brand names to develop a loyal customer

base. One of the representatives of local companies stated that building brand loyalty is very difficult

due to nature of the industry. Especially long holidays are booked once in a year and customers are

not necessarily loyal in their next purchase.

Rivalry among existing competitors is also low due to strong growth in the industry. Majority of

industry experts estimated double digit growth in online travel industry in the next five years not only

due to strong growth in tourism industry but also due to higher online retail adoption. Fast growing

nature of the industry prevented stiff competition among players. Top players in the market are

Tatilsepeti.com, Tatil.com, Gezisitesi.net and BookinTurkey.com. (Exhibit 7) In addition to that, brick

and mortar travel operators (MNG Tour, Jolly Tour, VIP, Setur, Pronto Tour etc), which have

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widespread representative network around Turkey, have also started to sell their products online.

Unlike international travel operators, local companies are not offering online and real-time bookings

over the Internet. Local players offering hotels abroad are using infrastructure of existing global

players. For instance, Tatilsepeti.com is acting as the local partner of Expedia by offering international

hotels via its website and call center. Although Internet enables borderless operation of companies,

literally there are no international online travel companies in Turkey i.e. none of the companies has

established a local physical office. Some of the companies have seized opportunity in Turkish market

and they started to offer their Turkish website as well (Hotels.com, HRS.com). However their

penetration to the market is very limited since they do not have a physical presence.

Threat of new entrants is very high. Industry experts stated that, due to limited control and low cost

of building web sites, even newly licensed operators launch online portals which promote products

online. Sales are shifting to the Net, further improvements in payment systems, travelers growing

experience with online shopping and increased confidence in online security will encourage more

firms to enter online travel business. International companies have major competitive advantages

due to their scale advantage but local companies leverage their local market knowhow to protect the

market. Growing nature of industry will create room and opportunity for both types of companies.

Porter’s five forces analysis shows that the industry is very prone to the entry of new players. Turkish

online travel industry will accommodate more and more players in the future. Representatives of

local companies interviewed for this study stated that many international players have been

analyzing the market and conducting meetings with them to assess opportunities in the market.

However there are specific challenges and opportunities of the Turkish market. An online travel

company should be aware of these trends while conducting market entry strategy to the market.

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Challenges and Opportunities in the Industry

Opportunities Challenges

Strong economic growth: Although the economy is

hit by global financial crisis, Turkish economy is

expected to continue its growth in the medium and

long term. Expectations of Euromonitor show

significant growth in the next five years.

Growing usage of Internet: Internet penetration is

growing in Turkey. Favorable demography of

Internet enabled population (higher income, young,

and willingness to travel) looks promising for online

travel companies.

Increase air travel: Air travel contributes to online

travel companies’ revenues significantly. Among the

type of transportation methods, air travel showed

the most significant growth. Increased competition

and entry of private competitors made Turkish air

transportation more attractive for middle income

travelers.

Growing outgoing market: Due to growing

prosperity and changing lifestyle, middle incomes

also started to travel abroad. Organized tour groups

are very popular way of outbound travel.

Positive effect of expanding incoming market: As

the number incoming tourists via air travel increase,

the more competitive prices will be offered to

outgoing tourists because airlines offer attractive

prices for their return trips to boost utilization of

Economic crisis: Recent economic crisis is expected to

have negative effects. Growth in market might delay.

Mushrooming online travel agents: Due to

unregulated industry structure, some companies

defraud online travelers by charging travel costs

without fulfilling obligations. Recently, national

newspaper published fraud story of an online travel

company which cheated customers and charged 1.5

million TL. These companies damage the reputation

of the industry.

Decreasing spending per trip: Average expenditure

per trip has been decreasing in the market according

to Euromonitor. Turkish consumers are becoming

price sensitive and that can bring online companies

advantage over brick & mortar agencies.

Security concern: Credit card penetration in Turkey is

high but security in online transactions is still a major

concern of consumers.

Branded operators: Tour operators have especially

captured Turkish outbound travel market and they

also started their online operations. In order to

compete with these players, e-travel companies

should focus on brand building and marketing.

Limited size of the market: Average spending per trip

is still low compared to other developed markets.

H

L

M

L

H

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their flights.

Improvement in payment conditions: Installment

in purchasing by using credit card (zero interest rate

up to 1 year installment) boosted especially

outbound travels.

Relationship with hotels: Existing hotel room

distribution system is based on quotas. Brick and

mortar travel agencies usually make seasonal

agreements with local hotels to sell an agreed

capacity of the hotel. Since online players are unable

to create adequate scale, they either act as a

middleman between customers and brick and mortar

operators or have their own brick and mortar

operator to reach an adequate scale.

Package holidays: Package holidays (travel + all

inclusive hotels) are very widespread in the market.

Customers are not very keen on to book their own

hotels and travel using an online system. Tour

operators create a number of limited packages and

sell online.

2. Advantages of business models

Advantages of a local player

Local taste: Existing local players have localized all their content and operations to suit the Turkish

travelers’ flavor. For instance, if a customer who is willing to travel to Italy enters tatilsepeti.com’s

website, he selects one of existing tours offered by a local operator which is using tatilsepeti.com to

advertise and sell its packages. In addition to flight and hotel accommodation, visa handling, local

guidance, transportation from the airport, transportation between cities in the target country and

travel insurance are all covered by this service. The same products and service are not offered at the

same price by an international operator.

Significant weight of domestic tourism: Although growth in outbound tourism accelerated in the last

years, majority of the travels are either business trips or visits of relatives living outside of Turkey. In

2007 there were 20.7 million domestic trips in Turkish market. Industry experts believe that only 1.5

million out of 8.6 million outgoing trips were leisure travelers. In existing system, business travelers

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are hard to capture by online operators because corporations usually have ongoing relationship with

existing local travel agents with which developing online companies are not able to compete. On the

other hand, travelers visiting their relatives abroad usually buy plane tickets via airline operators’

website, call centers or agents. Local travel agents (both brick & mortar and online) also offer low

price vacation packages with high quality customer service and majority of leisure travelers are

captured by travel agents. Unlike in other European countries where outgoing travel outweighs

domestic travel, Turkish travelers will remain domestic tourism oriented even in the long term. Visa

requirements, language and cultural barriers, low share of customers who can afford outbound

travels will support this trend for a long run.

Existing customer base: Existing online travel companies and tour operators have captured a large

customer base. Although retaining customer loyalty and creating network effect are difficult in the

industry, local companies use marketing tools to improve repurchase rates.

Relationship with local hotels: Although more and more Turkish citizens prefer going abroad,

domestic tourism market will continue to be key segment in the industry. Existing relationship of

companies with local hotels will give them a competitive advantage over new comers to the market.

Searching online - buying offline: Existing local players have either brick & mortar travel companies

or they are in partnership with one of them. This partnership enables them to leverage their online

and offline presence. In addition to that, all online travel companies offer call center solutions to their

customers.

Tailor made payment conditions: Local companies offer zero interest rate up to one year installment

if travelers use their credit cards in payment. For customers who are not keen on paying by credit

card, local companies also accept wire transfer and cash. Usually additional discounts are offered for

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these customers due to less transaction costs. Unless a multinational company opens a local office

and makes special agreements with credit card companies in Turkey to promote payments for

services in installments, it cannot compete with local companies in payment conditions.

Advantages of a multinational player

Global purchasing power: Their scale advantage enables multinational companies to receive lower

prices from suppliers. They offer low-price guarantees and local companies are not able to compete

with them in price in outgoing travel (excluding package tours). Even existing operators in Turkish

market rely on the international players’ infrastructure. Global companies also negotiate with hotels,

airlines and rental car companies to offer better deals for the industry’s overcapacity. By getting

significant discounts from their suppliers, they act as a vast clearing house and attract customers

looking deals. A local company will never have such a purchasing power.

Diversification of risks: In contrast to local players, multinational players are not dependent on a

single market and they diversify their risks by operating in multi markets. An economic slowdown in

Turkey will be compensated by other markets’ performance. On the other hand, local companies

depend on a single market and they are very prone to external pressures (economic crisis, rising fuel

prices etc.) because of their limited resources.

High brand awareness: Global companies pour vast resources to build a strong brand name. Thrust

and brand awareness are very important in online transactions. Because of uncertainty in demand

and other risks involved in the industry, every year Turkish press in covering victims of bankrupted

tourism operators. This image of the industry favors strong brands. A multinational online travel

company will build a strong brand and thrust in the industry in the long run.

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Specialization: International players are able to cater a wider spectrum of travelers by having a wider

portfolio of brands. For example Expedia has Hotwire for budget travelers and Hotels.com for

customers only looking for Hotels. A local company cannot focus on specialization due to lack of

adequate scale.

Learning effect and market know how: A multinational player will bring its globally accumulated

knowhow to the market. Technological improvements will be first adopted by these players and that

will entice Turkish customers.

Diversity of services: Multinational players offer more hotels and vacation packages through their

websites compared to local players. Unless a local player become a partner/affiliate of multinational

online travel operator, the company cannot offer deals for a hotel chain located outside of Turkey. In

addition to that, travelers using multinational companies’ services have maximum control over their

itinerary. Customers can select hotel, flight, car rental, tour guide etc. individually whereas local

companies usually offer “predetermined” vacation packages.

Exhibit 8 summarizes advantages of local and international companies in Turkish market.

3. Future expectations (which model will succeed in Turkey)

Currently, Turkish online travel market is fully controlled by local players. The ratio of fully online

travel bookings is almost ignorable (except flight bookings through local airline companies) and

travelers prefer to finalize their deal offline. Although international companies such as Booking.com,

HRS.com, Hotels.com started to offer their website in Turkish, offline nature of transactions and

previously cited advantages of local players deteriorates these players chance in the market. In order

to compensate for their disadvantages, international companies started to integrate local operators

to their affiliate programs. Tatilsepeti.com became white label partner of Expedia in international

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hotel reservations in 2009. Visitors see Expedia’s hotel offerings available for booking through a

white label portal at Tatilsepeti.com. Local company is also promoting Expedia’s name in its webpage

to gain credibility for the nondomestic hotel reservations. Both local and multinational players are

benefiting from affiliate relationship. This trend is expected to continue and international players

interested in Turkish market are expected to find local partners in Turkey (Exhibit 9).

In the long run, Turkish consumers will become more receptive to online travel booking as their

reliance on online services grows. Key success factors in the market will be customer satisfaction,

price and infrastructure. Scale and infrastructure favor multinational players in the market. By using

their global presence and vast resources, multinational travel operators will improve their websites,

offer lower prices and create trust in their brands. On the other hand, in the short and medium term,

customer satisfaction favors local players which are able to offer better customer service and

payment conditions. Because of relatively small size of Turkish market, multinational players will not

be able to develop tailor made solutions for the market i.e. they will hardly compete with locals in

offering offline service, better payment conditions and customer service. Therefore the success of

local or multinational model depends on the pace of transition of Turkish market from infancy to

maturity. Growing penetration of Internet, rising disposable incomes and emerging travel demand

offer significant growth potential for multinational companies. Existing domestic players and Turkish

style of online travel business will force them to create strategic partnerships and joint ventures with

existing local players.

In the long run, market dominance by multinational players is inevitable due to their operational and

scale advantage. In order to capture market share, these companies should convince the customers

to create their packages dynamically. Offering installment in payments and having local call center

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are inevitable absolute necessities for these operators. In addition to that, business segment, which is

expected to grow rapidly according to Euromonitor’s expectations, will be star market segment. With

its less price sensitive nature, business travelers are more open to bundle products during reservation

and multinational companies should target this segment to generate quick return to their

investments.

Initially, international companies will lack network effect. By partnering with existing travel

companies, multinational companies will penetrate into the market faster. In addition to that,

existing customer base of major credit card companies or GSM operators will provide fuel for growth.

Bundling travel products or offering discounts to the existing customer base of these companies in

line with company’s target customer strategy will accelerate market penetration.

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Appendix

Exhibit 1a: Total number of Internet users, by country, millions, March 2009

Exhibit 1b: Top 20 countries with highest Internet penetration, %, March 2009

Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm

0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350

Argentina

Vietnam

Canada

Turkey

Italy

Korea South

France

Germany

India

United States

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%

India

China

Mexico

Brazil

Turkey

Argentina

France

Spain

Canada

United States

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Exhibit 1c: Total number of broadband subscribers, by country, millions, December 2008

Source: OECD Broadband statistics [oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband]

Exhibit 2: Penetration of international players into Turkish e-commerce market

Source: Desk Search

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80

Czech Republic

Denmark

Sweden

Poland

Turkey

Mexico

Canada

Korea

France

Japan

Exhibit 3: Total number of Facebook users

Rank Country Number of Facebook users

1 USA 69,378,980

2 UK 18,711,160

3 Turkey 12,382,320

4 Canada 11,961,020

5 France 10,781,480

6 Italy 10,218,400

7 Indonesia 6,496,960

8 Australia 6,053,560

9 Spain 5,773,200

10 Colombia 5,760,300

Source: Facebook

Exhibit 4: Turkish e-commerce market total

Source: Turkish Internet Sector Overview by Sina Afra (EBay Turkey, Member of Board), May 2008

Exhibit 5a: Domestic trips by purpose of visit,

2002

Domestic tourism (# of visits) 16,377

- Business 4,635

- Leisure 11,742

Domestic Tourist Expenditure

(mn TL)

6,241

Expenditure per visit (TL) 381

Source: Euromonitor, Tourism Flows Domestic

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Facebook users, by country, July 2009

Number of Facebook users 12 month growth %

69,378,980 149.50%

18,711,160 67.50%

12,382,320 257.40%

11,961,020 24.30%

10,781,480 338.10%

10,218,400 1980.70%

6,496,960 2997.30%

6,053,560 88.20%

5,773,200 729.60%

5,760,300 138.80%

total volume & year-on-year growth, millions USD, 2007

Source: Turkish Internet Sector Overview by Sina Afra (EBay Turkey, Member of Board), May 2008

trips by purpose of visit, total volume, expenditure, expenditure per visit, TL, 2002

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008E 2009E

16,706 17,399 18,359 19,599 20,723 22,132 23,704

4,811 5,115 5,508 6,042 6,292 6,623 6,981

11,895 12,284 12,851 13,558 14,431 15,509 16,723

6,724 6,951 7,120 6,742 7,045 7,398 7,723

402 399 388 344 340 334

Domestic - Turkey

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Source: Turkish Internet Sector Overview by Sina Afra (EBay Turkey, Member of Board), May 2008

, TL, 2002-2012

2009E 2010E 2011E 2012E

23,704 25,418 27,335 29,466

6,981 7,374 7,815 8,302

16,723 18,044 19,520 21,164

7,723 8,058 8,389 8,724

326 317 307 296

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Exhibit 5b: Outgoing Trips by Purpose of Visit, Total volume, Expenditure, Expenditure per visit, TL, 2002-2012

'000 people 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008E 2009E 2010E 2011E 2012E

Departures (# of visits) 5,080 5,840 7,548 8,098 8,275 8,671 9,026 9,478 10,023 10,722 11,515

- Business departures 1,427 1,628 2,085 2,250 2,352 2,439 2,535 2,650 2,780 2,951 3,142

- Leisure departures 3,653 4,212 5,463 5,848 5,923 6,232 6,491 6,828 7,243 7,771 8,373

Outgoing tourist expenditure (mn

TL)

2,676 2,847 2,998 3,318 2,815 3,026 3,137 3,278 3,439 3,638 3,849

Expenditure per visit (TL) 527 487 397 410 340 349 348 346 343 339 334

Source: Euromonitor, Tourism Outflows Turkey

Exhibit 6: Domestic travelers vs. outgoing travelers in turkey

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Exhibit 7: Major online travel companies in Turkey*

Company URL Online since Traffic rank by Alexa Description

Tatil.com

www.tatil.com 15 May 1997 47,874 First local online travel company in Turkey founded by GTS

Travel which also owns internationally active online operators

e.g. otels.com

Tatilsepeti.com

www.tatilsepeti.com 24 May 2003 25,036 A specialized portal to sell travel packages of brick and mortal

operators via its website. The company is also a member of

Expedia Affiliate Partner Program. Visitors are able to reserve

hotels via tatilsepeti.com’s website or call center by using

Expedia’s infrastructure.

Gezitesitesi.net

www.gezisitesi.com 07 Nov 2005 68,708 Gezisitesi is a subsidiary of local conglomerate Dogan Holding

which is also active in broadcasting, printing and news media

sectors.

BookinTurkey.com

www.bookinturkey.com 28 Jan 2000 386,630 BookinTurkey is another company owned by a local

conglomerate, Koc Group. The company claims that it is the only

Turkey Specialist Travel Portal that can get online and real-time

bookings over the Internet due to its internally developed

program.

* Most of these companies use Internet to promote their products but they do not allow customers to book real time.

Source: Interviews with industry experts and Alexa.com

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Exhibit 8: Advantages of local and international online travel companies in Turkish market

Exhibit 9: Partnership between local and multinational online travel operators

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Exhibit 10: Interviews conducted for the study*

Name Type Position Company / Institution

Nedim Paltura Local online travel company Founding partner Tatilsepeti.com

Yavuz Tosun Local online travel company General manager Gezitesitesi.net

Basak Bilmen Local online travel company General manager BookinTurkey.com

Giray Hudayioglu Travel search engine General manager Seyahatix.com

Güneş Karamullaoğlu Academician Vice Chair Bilkent University, Tourism and Hotel Management Department

Gonul Yildirim Media PR Manager The Travel Media Association of Turkey

Fehmi Kofteoglu Media Chief Editor Turizmgazetesi.com (Local online newspaper for Tourism industry)

Ali Yilmaz Market expert Industry Head Google

Yalcin Parmaksiz Market expert E-marketing coordinator EBI

Hakki Arikan Market expert Marketing manager EBay Turkey

Cenk Cevik Market expert Manager, New Technologies Amadeus Turkey

Guney Yasavur Market expert Business Development Manager Superonline

Selcuk Ergin Market expert Consultant Freelance IT Consulting to Travel Operators

Burak Turgut Market expert General manager Seyahatfikirleri

Details of interviewees are kept

confidential in the public version of the paper

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Resources:

1. Travel Behavior in Turkey. Istanbul: Nielsen Research, 2009.

2. Afra, Sina. Turkey Internet Sector Overview. Istanbul: Ebay, 2009.

3. Celebi, Erkan. “By changing its Internet address, Anis Tours is faking travelers.” Hurriyet, 3 August 2009: 10.

4. “Pronto Tour will triple its revenues in 5 years”. 18 June 2009. 10 July 2009.

<http://www.kobiden.com/haber.asp?id=2191&baslik=Pronto+Tur+cirosunu+5+yilda+3e+katlayacak>.

6. “Tourism Flows Domestic – Turkey”. 11 December 2008. 15 July 209. <http://www.euromonitor.com >.

7. “Tourism Flows Inbound – Turkey”. 11 December 2008. 15 July 209. <http://www.euromonitor.com >.

8. Interviews (please see Exhibit 10)