How tourists flew to Spain, but ended up in Turkey

A funny story about how Russian tourists went to Madrid and flew to the Turkish city of Mardin, which was circulated yesterday by dozens of media outlets, turned out to be a fake.

Not very popular with tourists, the Turkish city of Mardin, located near the border with Syria, became known to millions of people in one day. And all thanks to publications about unlucky tourists whom the tour operator sent instead of the capital of Spain to a small Turkish town. At the same time, it was reported that the tourists noticed that they had not arrived there, only at Mardin Airport, where they arrived on a connecting flight from Istanbul. It went on to describe how Turkish and Russian tour operators worked together to fix the mistake and how the Russians ended up liking the city.

At first, the story, although it caused some doubts, did not seem to be something completely unbelievable, especially since it was published, including on the website of such a respected organization as the Association of Tour Operators of Russia. Meanwhile, as Vice-President of the Alliance of Travel Agencies (ATA) Alexan Mkrtchyan later stated, referring to information from his sources in Turkey, all this is a fiction, a kind of PR move by the Mardin City Hall, aimed at increasing the attractiveness of the town for tourists, including From Russia.

The ATA vice-president also cited as an argument the fact that a visa is required to travel to Spain, and it is impossible to obtain it without having tickets confirming entry into the country. To this, however, one can answer that it is possible that the tourists already had a valid visa.

But the argument given by people who have repeatedly visited Turkey is more weighty. At the airport in Istanbul, where tourists allegedly needed to make a transfer, it is absolutely impossible to confuse international and domestic flights. Departures by local flights are carried out from one terminal, international flights – from another. And if we assume that the tourists had a long-term Schengen visa, it is logical to assume that they are quite experienced travelers and know how to distinguish a domestic flight from an international one. Unless, of course, they are in the state of Zhenya Lukashin from “The Irony of Fate …”

In any case, if it really was a PR move, then one can only applaud its authors – it was a complete success.

Meanwhile, tourists still want to be advised to be more careful. Judging by the information of representatives of the tourism industry, Russian tourists do not always check the documents received from travel agents, and sometimes they even confuse the airport of departure, not that of arrival. So this story is another reason to remind you that you should look at your vouchers, tours and tickets at least for your own peace of mind.

Alena Bodrienko.

Photo from the ATOR website