1. 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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H
L
M H
L
Challenges and Opportunities in the Industry
Opportunities Challenges
Strong economic growth: Although the economy is Economic crisis: Recent economic crisis is expected to
hit by global financial crisis, Turkish economy is have negative effects. Growth in market might delay.
expected to continue its growth in the medium and
Mushrooming online travel agents: Due to
long term. Expectations of Euromonitor show
unregulated industry structure, some companies
significant growth in the next five years.
defraud online travelers by charging travel costs
Growing usage of Internet: Internet penetration is without fulfilling obligations. Recently, national
growing in Turkey. Favorable demography of newspaper published fraud story of an online travel
Internet enabled population (higher income, young, company which cheated customers and charged 1.5
and willingness to travel) looks promising for online million TL. These companies damage the reputation
travel companies. of the industry.
Increase air travel: Air travel contributes to online Decreasing spending per trip: Average expenditure
travel companies’ revenues significantly. Among the per trip has been decreasing in the market according
type of transportation methods, air travel showed to Euromonitor. Turkish consumers are becoming
the most significant growth. Increased competition price sensitive and that can bring online companies
and entry of private competitors made Turkish air advantage over brick & mortar agencies.
transportation more attractive for middle income
Security concern: Credit card penetration in Turkey is
travelers.
high but security in online transactions is still a major
Growing outgoing market: Due to growing concern of consumers.
prosperity and changing lifestyle, middle incomes
Branded operators: Tour operators have especially
also started to travel abroad. Organized tour groups
captured Turkish outbound travel market and they
are very popular way of outbound travel.
also started their online operations. In order to
Positive effect of expanding incoming market: As compete with these players, e-travel companies
the number incoming tourists via air travel increase, should focus on brand building and marketing.
the more competitive prices will be offered to
Limited size of the market: Average spending per trip
outgoing tourists because airlines offer attractive
is still low compared to other developed markets.
prices for their return trips to boost utilization of
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their flights. Relationship with hotels: Existing hotel room
distribution system is based on quotas. Brick and
Improvement in payment conditions: Installment
mortar travel agencies usually make seasonal
in purchasing by using credit card (zero interest rate
agreements with local hotels to sell an agreed
up to 1 year installment) boosted especially
capacity of the hotel. Since online players are unable
outbound travels.
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
United States
India
Germany
France
Korea South
Italy
Turkey
Canada
Vietnam
Argentina
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Exhibit 1b: Top 20 countries with highest Internet penetration, %, March 2009
United States
Canada
Spain
France
Argentina
Turkey
Brazil
Mexico
China
India
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80%
Source: http://www.internetworldstats.com/top20.htm
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Exhibit 1c: Total number of broadband subscribers, by country, millions, December 2008
Japan
France
Korea
Canada
Mexico
Turkey
Poland
Sweden
Denmark
Czech Republic
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Source: OECD Broadband statistics [oecd.org/sti/ict/broadband]
Exhibit 2: Penetration of international players into Turkish e-commerce market
Source: Desk Search
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Exhibit 3: Total number of Facebook users by country, July 2009
users,
Rank Country Number of Facebook users 12 month growth %
1 USA 69,378,980 149.50%
2 UK 18,711,160 67.50%
3 Turkey 12,382,320 257.40%
4 Canada 11,961,020 24.30%
5 France 10,781,480 338.10%
6 Italy 10,218,400 1980.70%
7 Indonesia 6,496,960 2997.30%
8 Australia 6,053,560 88.20%
9 Spain 5,773,200 729.60%
10 Colombia 5,760,300 138.80%
Source: Facebook
Exhibit 4: Turkish e-commerce market total volume & year-on-year growth, millions USD, 2007
Source: Turkish Internet Sector Overview by Sina Afra (EBay Turkey, Member of Board), May 2008
Exhibit 5a: Domestic trips by purpose of visit, total volume, expenditure, expenditure per visit, TL, 2002-2012
, 2002
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008E 2009E 2010E 2011E 2012E
Domestic tourism (# of visits) 16,377 16,706 17,399 18,359 19,599 20,723 22,132 23,704 25,418 27,335 29,466
- Business 4,635 4,811 5,115 5,508 6,042 6,292 6,623 6,981 7,374 7,815 8,302
- Leisure 11,742 11,895 12,284 12,851 13,558 14,431 15,509 16,723 18,044 19,520 21,164
Domestic Tourist Expenditure 6,241 6,724 6,951 7,120 6,742 7,045 7,398 7,723 8,058 8,389 8,724
(mn TL)
Expenditure per visit (TL) 381 402 399 388 344 340 334 326 317 307 296
Source: Euromonitor, Tourism Flows Domestic - Turkey
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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 2,676 2,847 2,998 3,318 2,815 3,026 3,137 3,278 3,439 3,638 3,849
TL)
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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20. 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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21. 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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22. 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 Details of interviewees are kept Editor
Media Chief Turizmgazetesi.com (Local online newspaper for Tourism industry)
Ali Yilmaz confidential inexpert public version ofIndustry Head
Market the the paper 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
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23. 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)
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