Easy Cruise to Turkey

Accommodation-only specialist youtravel.com has teamed up with easyCruise to take 20 top-selling agents on the inaugural cruise of the line’s second ship easyCruise Life.

The ship will leave Piraeus (Athens) on April 19 for the voyage - a week-long cruise around the Greek islands.

Ports of call include Syros and Samos, Kalymnos, Kos and Paros, and a 24-hour-stay in Mykonos. easyCruise Life will visit Turkey for the first time with a full day and night in Bodrum.

Youtravel.com has an exclusive deal with easyCruise meaning that agents can earn 15% commission on every booking they make at youtravel.com.

To celebrate the launch of easyCruise Life, youtravel.com is also offering a trade incentive of £10 per booking made before February 29.

Youtravel.com sales director Paul Riches said: “Not only will the winners have a chance to be the among the first to sail on the line’s new ship, they’ll also have the chance to meet easyCruise founder Stelios Haji-Ioannou who’ll be onboard for the first two days as the ship sails from Athens to Bodrum.”

Source - travelweekly.co.uk/

Outlook

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Ali Agaoglu, Chairman of Agaoglu Group, a Turkish construction and tourism company, doesn't expect the Turkish house prices to fall following the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. Ağaoğlu said in a press conference in Istanbul “I expect house prices in Turkey to double in dollar terms in the medium term because only this year the prices of iron, the main building material, rose more than 70 percent.”

“Turkey needs 1 million new houses every year, because about 700,000 couples get married each year and one third of the current 18 million homes need to be renewed over about 20 year's time. But only about 500,000 houses are built every year.” said Ağaoğlu, who also noted that the prices would continue to rise as the supply could not meet the demand.

“Many of the new houses in Turkey are built for medium and high income groups. It's not possible to target potentially more demanding low-income groups as the land prices are very high. But house prices are still low in Turkey compared to European cities”, added Ağaoğlu.

Akbuk fish farms

The Agriculture Ministry's recent decision to relocate fish farms from the Akbük Gulf to Büyük Menderes River Basin within the borders of a national park has drawn reaction from environmentalists.

“The demand for increasing fish production capacity from 20 tons to 980 tons and for raising the numbers of fish farms from 15 to some 100 will cause a reduction in the size of the Menderes River Basin,” said Ecosystem Preservation and Nature Lovers Association (EKODOST) Chairman Bahattin Sürücü.

“Because of the strict control of fish farms in European Union countries, Greek fishermen in particular are trying to establish connections with Turk fish farm owners,” added Sürücü. “Fish farms have mostly invaded the western part of the Aegean shores except for this little part of Büyük Menderes River Basin. Our natural and cultural values are exposed to continual destruction; we should all be sensitive.”

Sürücü said that the Ministry's approval was “suspicious,” because fish farm locations in the vicinity of Taşburnu and Altınkum had been refused previously as they would likely cause pollution.