Early booking has prospects – mostly for the most pressing financial reasons – despite all the fears of tourists. Mustafa Kemal Çubuk, Deputy General Director for Operations and Contracts of TatilbudurCom, presented this assessment to the Turkish media. According to his estimates, two opposite trends are observed — on the one hand, the tourist, frightened by the unpredictable reality, starting with covid, is not ready to buy and part with money in advance. On the other hand, this summer season has shown that last-minute tours turn out to be significantly more expensive, so there is a significant argument in favor of early booking – the desire to save. All the more so since tour operators are ready to meet the tourist and for early booking payments are stretched for a long time.
“There is a positive and negative trend. But we estimate that the economic benefit of early bookings will outweigh this early booking period, which will be very tight from a demand perspective. The main thing for a tourist is that early booking does not mean early payment. With current installment programs, a tourist can pay for his vacation in 2023 within 3-5 months,” said Mr. Chubuk. He also noted that last-minute holiday prices have in some cases tripled early booking prices this year, and there are a chance tourists won’t forget that.
He also noted that early booking has another plus. “2023 will be the year when there will be no room left for last-minute quotas, and most of the hotels in demand will be filled by booking. This year we made sure of it. Pre-inquiries for early bookings have increased significantly,” the Turkish expert assured.