Crimean economy without myths (5). The Black Sea competition in tourism from BSN.
The beach in Sochi. Photo from website: yarobltour.ru
Andrei KLIMENKO,
Chairman of Tavrichesky Institute of Regional Development,
Honored Economist of the AR Crimea,
Chief Editor of BlackSeaNews
Tatiana GUCHAKOVA,
Director of Tavrichesky Institute of Regional Development,
Leader of the BlackSeaNews Project
Continued from: Crimean economy without myths(1) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews.
Crimean economy without myths(2) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews.
Crimean economy without myths(3) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews.
Crimean economy without myths about ... tourism (4) Exclusive from BlackSeaNews.
The new strategy of development of the Crimea, adopted in late 2010, for the first time sets the aim of the development of the peninsula in the context of competition in the Black Sea region, with a view in prospect to bring the Crimea to the position of leader of this region. (!).
This goal is established, despite the serious problems of the Crimean economy in general and in the Crimean tourism in particular, which were discussed in previous articles of these series.
In order to demonstrate prominently how ambitious is this task in reality, Tavrichesky Institute for Regional Development made comparative analysis of the current competitive situation in the Black Sea tourism on the basis of publications of the news feeds of the BlackSeaNews from September, 15, 2010 to April, 15, 2011.
Preliminary remarks
1. It is not by chance that the authors have chosen the period from September 15 to April 23 for their analysis – it was made to avoid the "summertime information noise" when all the tourist market operators are keen to show that their situation is perfect :))
The database of the reports on economic matters of the information agencies of the Black Sea region, accumulated by BlackSeaNews and maintained by the Tavricheski Institute of Regional Development since 2010, was used in the capacity of the main array of information used to assess competition in the tourism sector.
The practical experience of the authors shows that such databases are certainly more relevant than classical economic statistics for the analys of the competitiveness in the "on-line" mode, which is the demand of a dynamic market situation.
The classical economic statistics, being more accurate and comprehensive, is significantly lagging behind. Such a delay can cause much more unpleasant consequences resulting from decisions, made in the environment of competition in case of less accuracy in the timely understanding of market trends.
The period from September 15, 2010 to April 23, 2011 was selected for the purposes of the study of the competitive situation in the tourism industry of the Black Sea Region.
Selection of the start date is based on the fact that in the summer months the information flow in the Black Sea countries is full of operational messages (a kind of "information noise") on the subject of tourism, which distort the overall picture and, at the same time it features less number of important economic events due to the holiday season.
Besides, the choice of such a starting point is justified as the economic processes in the designated countries in 2008-2009 were significantly deformed by the crisis developments (especially in tourism, which is very susceptible to such conditions), while the year of 2010 observed overall post-crisis recovery of tourism. Therefore, the selected period has the greatest practical value for the modern goal of evaluation and strategic planning
The initial number of analyzed messages in the database for that period constituted more than 7000. Repetitions and messages, which miss the event-trigger nature, were excluded.
View of the Batumi International Airport. Photo from website: airspot.ru
2. We excluded Armenia and Azerbaijan from this comparative analysis of the competitive situation in the Black Sea tourism
- as their tourist industries (tourist accommodation facilities) are not yet part of the particular, typical for the rest of the Black Sea region, competitive environment (except for issues dealing with places of recreation in these countries, which, in their turn, manifest themselves indirectly through tourist economy of the other Black Sea states).
3. This analysis does not include also the areas of the North Caucasus Federal District of Russia - Stavropol territory, Dagestan, Karachai-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya.
Despite the considerable efforts of strategic nature, which they currently make in this district, it will be possible to consider the potential of the North Caucasus in the general context of the “tourism in the Black Sea area” no sooner than the year of 2014.
4. A comparative analysis does not take into account information from the Republic of Moldova due to its inconsiderable current presence in the tourist market of the region.
5.The development of ski resorts deserves separate analysis as it is significantly beyond the framework of this work.
At one time - in late 2010 - BlackSeaNews devoted a series of detailed reviews featiring this topic and curious reader can easily find them on our website. But in the context of this analysis, the other thing is more important.
The Crimea does not posses natural climatic conditions for the large-scale development of winter sports.
This, together with active measures to develop winter sports in Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Georgia, as well as at the resorts of the Black Sea coast of Russia, escalates the situation with competition in the region not in favor of the Crimea.
6. The main indicator to assess competition in the tourist sector is the development of hospitality business as a base for other components of the tourism industry.
Thus, it is competition of tourist accommodation facilities, that makes the primary ingredient of this sector, as the construction of a new hotel for the international hotel chains means automatically that appropriate technical infrastructure has been already created (or being developed at a fast rate in a parallel way ) in this area.
On the other hand - namely the need of maximum occupancy of sufficient number of high-class hotel rooms, which construction was heavily invested, triggers activation of such, adjacent to tourism, forms of competition in the Black Sea area as competition of visa and customs regimes, airports and airlines.
Black Sea competition in tourism:
Facts and Trends
Bulgaria
Recent years in Bulgaria were marked with opening of 4 new chain hotels - one in Sofia and 3 in the Black Sea resort of Varna. All of them were commissioned in 2011-12.
In summer 2011 «RIU Hotels & Resorts» company inaugurated the «RIU Dolce Vita» hotel, 20 km from Varna. It became the fifth RIU hotel in Bulgaria and the very first in the Golden Sands resort. It is the all-inclusive 4-star hotel with 290 rooms.
Three new hotels under the Hilton brand - one in Sofia and two at the Golden Sands resort were constructed recently. One is the second hotel of this chain in Sofia (the first Hilton was put into operation there in 2001.) The another new hotel complex Garden Inn under Hilton brand was constructed next to the Sofia airport.
Two new Hilton hotels were opened at the Golden Sands resort. First - Doubletree by Hilton Varna was operated before by Helios Spa & Resort chain and has officially become part of the Hilton hotel chain in summer of 2011. Second - Hilton Varna was constructed on the site of the old hotel Veliko Tarnovo and was put into operation in 2012.
During the same period, 2 Bulgarian hotels were nominated in the prestigious international competitions.
Bulgarian hotel «Festa Winter Palace» in the ski resort of Borovets was nominated to take part in the “Luxury Tourism Awards 2011” contest. Five-star hotel in Borovets was the sole representative of the whole of Eastern Europe hospitality industry in this competition.
Grand Hotel Varna (located in the St. St. Constantine and Helena resort) won the prestigious award of World Travel Association, known as the Oscar of the tourism industry, and was recognized as the "Best Spa complex of Bulgaria in 2010." Awards were granted by voting of 183 thousand tourism professionals from more than 160 countries.
At the year-end 2010, Bulgaria became the leader of the European hotels price-quality ratio. Ranking was compiled by Hotel.Info, free online hotel reservation service .
This study examined customer reviews of hotels rated from two to five stars, based on score from 0 to 10 (hotel reservation Internet database features more than 210,000 hotels worldwide.)
Hotels of Bulgaria got 7.61 rating in the price-quality ratio. According to Hotel.Info, Poland (7.6 points) and the Czech Republic (7.6 points) shared the second place in the list of the best hotels in Europe, while Hungary won the third place with 7.59 points. The following two places in the top ten were taken by Bosnia and Herzegovina and Romania. The top 10 also included Portugal, Spain, Austria and Germany.
Users of Hotel.Info also included Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Italy, Ireland, Turkey, Greece, Finland, Switzerland and France into twenty European countries with optimal "price-quality" ratio.
Georgia
Among the countries of the Black Sea area at the end of 2010 tourist season Georgia enjoyed the greatest number and diversity of targeted hotel business development information on launching, construction and intentions to invest in building of the new luxury hotels..
In Batumi, on the Black Sea coast of Adjara, the hotel Sheraton was put into operation in summer 2010, construction of Radisson was completed and it starts welcoming tourists in July 2011. Before 2015 construction of Hayat, Kempinski and Ritz-Carlton brands hotels are to follow. A 5 star hotel with no less than 300 rooms and a casino will be built by Turkish-Georgian company B & G GEORGIA, volume of investments - about 150 million dollars.
The company has bought a plot of land of 9805 square meters for a token payment of GEL 1. Construction is due to begin in May 2011 with the hotel being commissioned no later than January 1, 2015. 90% of its staff should be Georgian citizens. Negotiations on hotels construction are under way with Hilton, Rixos, Intercontinental, as well as on a seven-star hotel "Batumi Bulgari."
Thus, in the coming 5-6 years in Batumi, it is possible to foresee the advent of about 10 five-star hotels of the brands of the world's leading chains.
Kobuleti in Adjara, the other Georgian Black Sea resort, sees the beginning of construction of the second 5 star hotel (the first - Georgia Palace Hotel - was built in 2008).
The terms of auction on purchase of plot of land envisaged construction by February 1, 2014 of a hotel of at least 150 rooms. 90% of its employees must be citizens of Georgia. This and the above mentioned hotels were developed outside the Free Tourist Zone (FTZ) "Kobuleti", which was formally set up at the end of 2010..
In late 2009, the bill of the Georgian parliament provided exemption of license fee for casinos of all the hotels in Adjara with capacity of more than 100 rooms.
In late 2010 -early 2011, one could observe an increased investment activity in free tourist zones, newly developed on the Black Sea coast of Georgia: FTZ Kobuleti (Adjara) and FTZ Anaklia (region of Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti) - near the border with Abkhazia.
Investors who have formalized contracts with the state on construction of hotels in Kobuleti, must commission objects in 15 months: first 4 months - to lay the foundation, the next 6 months - to build the hotel and the following five months – to put the object in operation. If the investor fails to meet the 15 months term, the three additional months period is granted by the government. But if 18 months term is not met, then the government reserves the right to apply sanctions. The constructed hotels will enjoy income tax exemption for 15 years.
Two plots of land with a total area of over 11 hectares were allocated in the FTZ Kobuleti for the construction of 30 hotels of three different types. Plots of land are transferred to investors at a token price, the government arranges all the utilities and infrastructure improvement.
Development of standard hotel projects was publicly-funded and they can be selected by an investor (for free) - two types of 5-storey, three types of 6-storey and two types of 7-storey, with respective capacity of 42, 52 and 60 rooms. The investors, who will build 15 hotels in Kobuleti, are already identified. Among them are companies from Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Latvia, Estonia. Construction of at least 3 hotels has started.
Thus, about 1500 hotel rooms will be built in the Kobuleti FTZ within the next two years.
20 applications for the hotel construction were filed in the Anaklia FTZ. The first hotel is already under construction and they have commenced to build the airport and the yacht club .
Turkish company Eurasia will construct a high-class hotel in Anaklia. The government handed over a plot of land of 9682 square meters to investors and Eurasia would pay just a token price of GEL 1 for it. In 22 months after registration of the contract investor is obliged to put hotel in operation. And in 8 months after conclusion of the agreement to invest at least 1 million GEL. The sites, intended for construction,are located along the boulevard, designed by Spanish architect.
The Government of Georgia has declared the de facto free (for just 1 GEL) allocation of plots of land to investors who will built a hotel in the Anaklia neighboring, high-altitude mountainous village of Mestia, which develops as a mountain and ski resort. The airport was also constructed there and the third FTZ could be created..
For the record: population of Kobuleti - 18,6 thousand people, of Anaklia - 2.5 thousand., of Mestia - 2, 6 thousand. (Census of 2002). Development of hotels in small towns and villages of the mountainous part of Georgia (both in Adjara, and in Kakheti in the eastern part of the country) belongs to the new strategic priorities of the government.
Development of the hotel business also takes place in the capital of Georgia - Tbilisi. At least three more luxury hotels will be commissioned there during the next 2-3 years.
The hotel of the Holiday Inn international brand started welcoming guests on December 15, 2010. The total investment amounted to $ 28 million. The hotel features 252 standard rooms, suites and business suites. Arab company is going to invest $ 16 million in the reconstruction of Tbilisi Sheraton Metekhi Palace hotel. It was built 20 years ago. Reconstruction will start in May 2011 to be completed in a year and a half. Negotiations with the hotel chain Hilton Worldwide were brought to conclusion to build a hotel in Tbilisi. A $ 30 million building will be completed in 2013.
Russia
Radisson SAS Lazurnaya Hotel (Sochi) Photo from website: travelnetplanet.com
Program of hotel construction in Sochi in the course of preparation for the 2014 Olympic Games envisages increase of the number of hotel rooms: from 5000 available now to 42 000, including - 23 900 rooms in certified hotels of different ratings.
Construction of these new hotels will be financed by the investors. The investment opportunities are currently available for development of hotel complexes with 3.2 thousand rooms capacity in the Imereti Lowland.
The 3 star hotel complex Loo with 750 rooms has been already commissioned, while construction of the hotel complex Gornaya Karusel and Roza Khutor, 4-star mountain complex of OAO "Gazprom" for 400 rooms is underway. Health spa hotel Sochi, health center Dagomys, 3 -star hotel Zolotoy Kolos, 4-star hotel Zvezdny-2 are being reconstructed now.
By the year of 2013 (including) they plan to construct five new 5-star hotels with total capacity of 3107 rooms, 6 new 4-star hotels with 4892 rooms, 4 new 3 -star hotels with altogether 4780 rooms. Furthermore, 2578 rooms (including 217 in 5-star, 631 in 4-star, and 1730 – in 3-star hotels) will be built at the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort.
Besides, a capital repair and reconstruction of the hotel and health spa hotels of 3-4 star rating with total capacity of 4653 rooms are underway.
|
New construction |
capital repair and reconstruction |
||||
|
|
|||||
|
Name |
Rating |
Q-ty of rooms |
Name |
Rating |
Q-ty of rooms |
|
|
|
||||
|
«Оrange |
5* |
60 |
Dagomys» (health spa hotel (sanatorium) |
- |
1001 |
|
«Gornaya Karusel» |
5* |
217 |
«Loo» |
3* |
750 |
|
«Imeretinskaya Riviera |
5* |
500 |
Sochi (health spa hotel) |
- |
360 |
|
Maly Ahun |
5* |
1300 |
Rus (health spa hotel) |
- |
2 |
|
Camellia |
5* |
300 |
Sochi Plaza |
3* |
340 |
|
Chernomorets |
5* |
800 |
Primorskaya |
- |
521 |
|
Zvezdny-2 |
4* |
120 |
Zolotoy Kolos (health spa hotel) |
- |
30 |
|
Primorskaya |
4* |
52 |
Zelenaya Rostcha |
3* |
153 |
|
Roza Khutor |
4* |
340 |
Zhemchuzhina |
4* |
963 |
|
Gornaya Karusel’ |
4* |
291 |
|
|
|
|
Sodruzhestvo |
4* |
2500 |
|
|
|
|
Imeretinskaya |
4* |
1120 |
|
|
|
|
Valentyn |
3* |
50 |
|
|
|
|
Roza Khutor |
3* |
1490 |
|
|
|
|
Krasnaya Polyana |
3* |
240 |
|
|
|
|
Sodruzhestvo |
3* |
3000 |
|
|
|
|
Mys Vidny |
- |
49 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
mountain skiing |
|
The first hotels at the new ski resort Roza Khutor are to welcome guests in late 2011. 10 hotels with overall capacity of 1660 rooms are to be built on the resort territory, each of them is to be managed by professional hotel operators, such as Rezidor, Accor, Golden Tulip and etc.
Volume of investments in the project will be $ US 1.4-1.5 billion. Six hotels are planned to be commissioned in 2011-2012, four - in 2013.
Operators of each hotel participated immediately in its design and this allowed the concepts of any hotel to use the most modern technical, architectural and design solutions.
3-star hotels will feature such brands as Park Inn, Tulip Inn, Mercure, Heliopark and Extreme. 4-star hotels will be operated by such brands as Golden Tulip and Radisson.
The 3-star hotel Tulip Inn Roza Khutor with capacity of 148 rooms is scheduled to be put into operation by the beginning of the ski season 2011-2012.
It will be the very first hotel of Golden Tulip chain in Russia. Hotels of the Rezidor Hotel Group, including the Radisson Resort Roza Khutor with 180 rooms and the 200-rooms Park Inn Roza Khutor, will start to welcome tourists in winter of 2011-2012.
The international hotel operator Accor will operate Mercure Roza Khutor Hotel (4 star, 152 rooms) scheduled to be opened in September 2012. IInterstate Hotels & Resorts will manage five hotels in Krasnaya Polyana, the first agreement on the management of the hotel with 426 rooms in the Cornaya Karusel complex was signed, next in turn are four medium price hotels with overall capacity of 1.1 thousand rooms.
Within the framework of preparation for the 2014 Olympics all hotels of Sochi should go through mandatory classification by July 1. Operation of hotels in Sochi, which have not passed the compulsory classification, will be considered illegal after July 1, 2011.
About 200 hotels of Sochi already have the documentary evidences of certification or so-called "star rating", 33 accommodation facilities are in the process of registration of the relevant documents.
One can detect active development of the hotel industry not only in Sochi, but also in the other cities of the Russian Black Sea coast.
The new 5-star health spa hotel Neftyannik Kubani was opened in Anapa in August 2011. The project cost is more than 150 million U.S. dollars, the investor is "Rosneft".
Russia's very first wine boutique hotel with 40 rooms was opened in December 2010 in Novorossiysk. Investors –Sparkling Wine Chateau "Abrau-Durso" and Cronwell Hotels & Resorts Gallery - promise to build another 2 hotels of this kind in this area. The total investment in these projects will amount to about US $ 30 million. Spa-services will be specialization of one of the 4 star hotels with 140 rooms. Its construction will start in the second half of 2011.
Romania
Mamaia Resort. Photo from website: index.locationromania.com
In comparison with Georgia and Russia, late 2010 - early 2011 did not bring Romania numerous reports about new hotels, except the ones which referred to new hotels in the capital city of Bucharest, industrial city of Ploiesti and mountain resorts of Busteni and Suceava.
After renovation and extensive modernization in 2011, one of the existing hotels of Ploiesti will get 242 rooms, acquire DoubleTree brand and change its name to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Ploiesti, becoming the fourth hotel of Hilton chain of the country. The next year 2 more hotels of this chain will be developed in Romania - in Oradea and Bucharest.
Austrian businessman is ready to invest $ US 1 billion in the construction of the 5-star resort complex in Busteni. Investor relies on the data that Romanians annually spend 60 million euros for holidays in Austria, and intends to "bring certain part of Austria to Romania". At the same time municipality of Busteni resort put out tender for 2.55 million euros (with the help of grants of the European Regional Development Fund, as well as money from national and municipal budgets) for the construction of urban infrastructure, construction of parks and facilities and installation of the lighting equipment at skiing slope.
The new golf resort will be developed near the Carpathian town of Suceava. The project plans to build a 5 -star hotel, 18-hole golf course, a golf academy with a 9-hole golf, conference center, spa center, other infrastructure. This project with the name of Dragomirna golf resort needs investment of about € 40 million for its implementation. Local governments of Suceava and Dragomirna are ready to participate in financing of the construction together with the Romanian Dedeman company and a group of private investors, as well as apply alongside for European funding .
Thus, situation at the seaside resort of Romania looks as follows:
|
Resort |
Number of hotels, ratingwise |
Total |
|||
|
|
5* |
4* |
3* |
2* |
|
|
Mamaia |
5 |
12 |
17 |
8 |
42 |
|
Eforie Nord |
|
3 |
7 |
8 |
18 |
|
Neptune |
|
2 |
6 |
4 |
12 |
|
Mangalia |
|
1 |
2 |
2 |
5 |
|
Olympus |
|
1 |
4 |
|
5 |
|
Venus |
|
3 |
2 |
1 |
6 |
|
Saturn |
|
1 |
3 |
|
4 |
|
Jupiter |
|
|
2 |
2 |
4 |
|
Aurora |
|
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
|
Total: |
5 |
24 |
44 |
26 |
99 |
|
Constanta |
|
9 |
9 |
|
18 |
|
Total: |
5 |
33 |
53 |
26 |
117 |
During this period there were no significant changes at the seaside resorts of Romania, as the number of the already certified hotels of 3-5 rating at the Romanian Black Sea coast is currently about 80% (91 of 117), their total capacity is about 25,000. beds, which indicates the extensive modernization work carried out within the recent years.
Turkey
Harbor in Antalya. Photo from website: wikipedia.org
Second half of 2010 saw in Turkey the explosive growth of the number of commissioned luxury hotels. This fact and the analysis of related characteristics (in particular, the creation of golf courses) indicates that the tourism business of Turkey has confidently completed its transition to the elite segment.
Since September 2010, at least eight new luxury hotels have been opened in Turkey:
|
Name |
Chain |
Rating |
Location |
|
Hilton Garden Inn |
Hilton |
5* |
Kutayya |
|
DoubleTree by Hilton |
Hilton |
5* |
Ankara |
|
Hilton Garden Inn |
Hilton |
5* |
Konya |
|
DoubleTree by Hilton Avanos-Cappadocia |
Hilton |
5* |
Cappadocia |
|
Maxx Royal Belek Golf & Spa |
Voyage |
5* |
Antalya, the area of 40 hectares, golf, 445 rooms |
|
Sensimar Belek Resort and SPA |
Sensimar |
5* |
Antalya |
|
Edition |
Marriott |
5* |
Istanbul |
|
Divan Çukurhan |
Preferred Boutique |
5* |
Istanbul |
In 2011-13 at least 10 new hotels are scheduled to be commissioned in the most popular resort in Turkey in Antalya, all of them are 5- star, except one 3-star and two 4-star hotels:
|
Name |
Chain |
Rating |
Remarks |
|
Luxury Royal Holiday Palace. |
Stone Group Hotels |
5* |
|
|
Seamelia Beach Resort and Spa |
|
5* |
|
|
Club Side Star |
|
4* |
After reconstruction |
|
Seamelia Beach Resort & SPA |
|
5* |
305 rooms |
|
Etelya Aqua |
|
5* |
|
|
Seher Sun Palace Resort |
|
5* |
|
|
Port Side Hotel |
|
5* |
|
|
Side Prenses |
|
3*, |
|
|
Hotel Missoni Belek |
The Rezidor Hotel Group |
5* |
2013., golf, 138 rooms н |
|
Armar Sea Side |
Armar Hotels |
4* |
After reconstruction |
Mardan Palace, Antalya, Turkey. Photo from website: donbass.ua
In 2011-2014 room capacity in luxurious hotels of Istanbul is to increase at least by 2270 rooms, including rooms in the following newly commissioned hotels:
|
Name |
Chain |
Rating |
Remarks |
|
Le Meridien Istanbul Etiler |
Starwood |
5* |
2012 г. |
|
Crowne |
Crowne Plaza |
5* |
|
|
Double Tree by Hilton Istanbul– Old Town |
Hilton |
5* |
|
|
Radisson Blu |
Radisson |
5* |
2012, 4th hotel of the chain, 305 rooms |
|
Shangri-La |
Shangri-La |
|
|
Within the same period of these 2-3 years large luxury hotels will be put into operation in the other cities of Turkey, in particular:
|
Name |
Chain |
Rating |
Remarks |
|
Elite World Van Hotel |
Elite World Hotels |
5* |
province of Van, |
|
Aloft |
Starwood |
5* |
Bursa 2013 |
|
Sheraton |
Starwood |
5* |
Bursa2013 |
|
Luxury Collection |
Starwood |
5* |
Ankara 2012 |
|
Alila Termal |
|
5* |
Afyonkarahisar, |
The increasing presence and, thus, competition of the world's leading hotel chains, relying on the continued growth of tourist flow to the country, have become the widespread phenomenon in Turkey.
For example, Radisson has already opened its fourth hotel in Istanbul with the focus on constantly growing tourist demand.
At the moment, 17 hotels of Hilton Worldwide are either under development or under construction in Turkey and they will be able to welcome guests in the next three years. The Hilton Worldwide hotel chain already runs 12 existing hotels in Turkey: Conrad Istanbul, Adana Hilton SA, Hilton Mersin, Hilton Istanbul, Hilton Park SA Istanbul, Hilton Izmir, Hilton Kayseri, Hilton Dalaman Resort & Spa, Double Tree by Hilton Ankara-Kolej, Double Tree by Hilton Avanos-Cappadocia, Hilton Garden Inn Kutahya and Hilton GardenInn Konya.
Starwood Hotels & Resorts currently operates five hotels in Turkey, three of them in Istanbul (W Istanbul, Sheraton Istanbul Maslak Hotel, Sheraton Istanbul Atakoy Hotel), one - in Cesme (Sheraton Cesme Hotel Resort and Spa), one - in Ankara (Sheraton Ankara Hotel & Convention Centre).
Turkey manages to preserve the affordable mass tourist price range and to indicate its final transition to the world tourism "elite division" through the number of hotel projects, which can be attributed as “The Limited Edition”:
The first "museum hotel" was opened in Ankara.
Hotel Divan Çukurhan featuring unique interior of the antiques from all over the world is housed in a caravanserai built in 1522, was part of the special project and belongs to the boutique hotels of Preferred Boutique.
The largest thermal baths complex of Europe - Alila Termal is going to be opened in the town of Afyonkarahisar.
Two five-star hotels and apartment complexes with total capacity of 2,000 beds and 42 pools will be built within the area of 130 thousand square meters. The first hotel is to be commissioned in January 2012. Then the thermal hotels of Alila will be developed in Istanbul, on the Mediterranean coast and in Saudi Arabia.
12 golf courses have been already built in Antalya.
At once 17 Turkish companies were given the awards in Herald Tribune competitions of the year of 2010.
Turkish hotel chain Rixos was recognized as the best in Europe, while its premium class hotels in Belek and Bodrum were declared to be The best Mediterranean hotels.
The premier places were granted in Europe in their categories, in particular to: airlines - Turkish Airlines, the best chain hotel - Concorde De Luxe Resort Antalya; best business hotel - Les Ottomans; best casino-hotel - Rixos Libertas Dubrovnink; charter airline - SKY Airlines , city hotel - Movenpick Istanbul; the best honeymoon and design hotel -Adam & Eve Hotels; golf Hotel - Cornelia De luxe Resort; hotel chain - Rixos; luxury class spa and resort hotel - Cornelia Diamond Golf & Resort; luxury class hotel - Mardan Palace; conference hotel - Rixos Sungate;
In 2010, Istanbul was proclaimed the best tourist destination in Europe.
Eight Turkish hotels got awards thanks to votes of visitors of the world's largest hotel reviews website HolidayCheck Hotel, while 33 other Turkish hotels entered the HolidayCheck Tophotels rating:
Sunis Hotel Evren Beach Resort & Spa became the favorite hotel of the country; the following hotels were voted as the most popular: Hotel Voyage Sorgun - by tourists under 30, Hotel Limak Lara de Luxe Lara Türkei - by tourists over 50 years; Hotel Delphin Diva Lara - by couples, Hotel Aspendos Beach Side - Gündogdu - by families. Hotel Delphin Palace Lara was declared as the best coastal hotel, Hotel Amara Dolce Vita Tekirova - the best wellness center. Special Prize of Editorial Board was awarded to Sunis Hotel Kumköy Beach Resort & Spa Side - Kumköy.
Hilton Dalaman Resort & Spa has received two tourist Oscars: World Travel Awards. Among the luxury hotels the Turkish Mardan Palace has become a leader and was the award-winner in nominations: The Best luxury hotel in the world", The Best spa hotel in the world" and The Best Royal Suite of the world".
* * *
Comprehension, consideration and forecast of trends and peculiarities of the Black Sea competition in the tourism industry is the major challenge for the Crimean tourism strategy
In early 2011, the only and the very first 5-star hotel was registered in the Crimea (after two years of preceding reconstruction this rank was granted to the Villa Elena hotel in Yalta).
The 5- star hotel of Hyatt Hotels Corporation chain is planned to be constructed in in the resort village of Partenit (Greater Alushta).To date, the Crimea has just 2 hotels of the global hotel chains - Radisson Hotel in Alushta and Sevastopol Hotel in Sevastopol, which is part of the Best Western International. Negotiations with other world leaders of this business have started.
In the Crimea in early 2011, 20 accommodation facilities have got “star ranking”. " Of these, 15 hotels got 3-star rating and 4 hotels were certified as 4-stars ...
In general, the competitive situation in the Black Sea forces the Crimea to find the answer to the main question: in what segments of the tourism market it is necessary to “catch the runaway train”, and where to find new and original ways of tourism development with the account of global trends.
To be continued