Genaral Manager, Voyazia

Genaral Manager, Voyazia Burak ÇALIŞKAN

You have served the cruise industry for many years. During your time at MSC, you brought a new breath to the cruise industry and became the person who made cruise more visible in Turkey. Can you tell us a little about this adventure?

encounter with the cruise industry began at the intersection of my passion for the sea and travel. I worked in many positions at MSC Cruises for 14 years. During this process, I made great efforts to introduce and spread cruise culture to Turkey. My aim was to tell Turkish travelers about the unique experience and comfort offered by cruise holidays. We tried to make cruise travel more accessible with intensive promotional campaigns, fairs, events and special promotions. In addition, we made our guests feel at home by introducing many innovations, from menus suitable for Turkish tastes to Turkish-speaking staff. I believe that these efforts have made significant contributions to the development and spread of cruise tourism in Turkey, and that our friends who took over the flag will carry this awareness even further in the future.

So, could you share the birth adventure of Voyazia with our readers?

The birth of Voyazia is the result of years of experience and passion for travel. The global and local experiences I have gained since I stepped into the sector in 2001 and my observation of the needs in the sector have given me a new vision. In line with this vision, we adopted the concept of personal travel consultancy. Voyazia, unlike corporate structures that engage in corporate or mass tourism activities, was established to best understand the needs and wishes of its guests and offer them special and different travel plans. With our slogan "Your Personal Travel Advisor", we aim to provide special and unforgettable travel experiences to each of our customers. This approach allows us to go beyond standard tours and offer personalized, enriched and original holiday options.

Voyazia is primarily a personal travel advisor. How do you position yourself in this context?

Voyazia, we position ourselves as personal travel consultants who best understand and meet our guests' travel needs and dreams. Our goal is to offer each of our guests a special and unforgettable travel experience. In this context, we first pay attention to understanding our guests' expectations, interests and travel styles. Our travel consultants personalize each guest's travels by offering specially planned travel routes, accommodation options, special events and experiences, and alternatives in line with their requests.

Voyazia, we believe that each of our guests is unique and therefore their travel experience should also be unique. That's why we go beyond standard tour packages and create completely personalized travel plans or programs with special content. According to our guests' wishes, we also include details such as special guidance services, gourmet restaurant reservations, special event tickets and activities of personal interest in our planning.

In addition, we support our guests by supporting them in any situation they may encounter during travel. In this context, we are committed to being accessible at any time during the trip and providing instant solutions to their needs.

In addition, with our website and sub-brand gemitrend.com, we have managed to gather all individual and package cruise programs offered to the Turkish market on a single platform to make them available to end consumers and travel agencies.

You have a versatile touring range. In this sense, which tours are most preferred by travel lovers?

Voyazia, we offer a wide range of travel options. Among the tours most preferred by our guests are European cultural tours, Mediterranean and Aegean cruise tours and tours to exotic destinations. The Iran and Uzbekistan tours we organize especially for those who want to discover historical and cultural riches attract great attention. In addition, river tours on Europe's famous rivers are among the favorites of our guests looking for a peaceful and enjoyable holiday.

Due to the long waiting times for visa applications lately, tour programs organized especially to visa-free destinations are in demand.

Among your notable tours are Iran and Uzbekistan tours. You even organize special programs during these tours. Can you talk a little bit about it?

Our Iran and Uzbekistan tours offer unique experiences for history and culture enthusiasts. In our Iran tours, we visit important cities such as Isfahan, Shiraz and Persepolis, where you can trace the ancient Persian civilization. In our Uzbekistan tours, we offer the opportunity to explore cities such as Samarkand, Bukhara and Tashkent, which are the heart of the Silk Road. We provide our guests with the opportunity to get to know the historical, cultural and gastronomic riches of the region in the best way, with special programs organized by distinguished guides in these destinations. Additionally, special events and interactions with local people also increase the appeal of these tours.

Cruise tours are among the tours that remain on the palate of every traveler. In this context, the long ship tours you prepare for travelers attract attention. What routes does it generally cover? How does the diversity and distribution of ship and on-board activities affect these tours?

Our cruise tours offer travelers unique routes across the world's seas. Our most popular routes include the Mediterranean, Caribbean, Baltic Sea and Far East. In our Mediterranean tours, we offer the opportunity to explore the fascinating coasts of Italy, Greece, Spain and France. In our Caribbean tours, we visit the heavenly beaches of tropical islands, and in our Baltic Sea tours, we visit the historical ports of Northern Europe. In our Far East tours, we offer the opportunity to explore exotic destinations such as Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan. On-board activities are diversified to appeal to all ages and interests. We offer our passengers a full holiday with many activities such as spa, fitness, gastronomy experiences, entertainment and cultural events.

Additionally, I can say that as cruise tours become more popular, longer routes are becoming more and more popular. In addition to regional routes starting from 20 days, we see an accelerated demand for World Tours lasting up to 120 days.

you tell us a little about your river tours?

Our river tours are ideal for those looking for a quiet and peaceful holiday, away from the crowds of big cities. These tours, which we organize on the world's famous rivers, are especially preferred by our guests who want to explore historical and natural beauties. We offer the opportunity to explore towns and cities, each with different beauties, on tours along the Rhine, Nile, Volga, Danube, Seine and Douro Rivers. On our river tours, you can travel on small and comfortable ships, enjoy the views along the river and discover local culture and cuisine. We also enrich your trip with on-board activities and guided tours.

So, can you talk about the current economic conditions and the advantages of cruise travel? What is the reaction of travelers to the pricing?

Regardless of economic conditions, cruise travel always offers an advantageous holiday option. This holiday model, where all services are offered together, combines accommodation, food and beverage, entertainment and transportation costs in a single package. In this way, travelers have the opportunity to explore different destinations in a single trip and avoid extra expenses. In addition, we offer our guests quality holiday options at affordable prices with early booking opportunities and special campaigns from time to time. Considering these advantages, our guests show great interest in our cruise tours. The advantages we offer in terms of price-performance continue to make cruise travel attractive.

Your elegant wife Ebru is accompanying you on your Voyazia adventure. Could you tell us about your wife's corporate background and how she got involved in Voyazia?

Mrs Ebru's first tourism experience was actually Voyazia. She previously worked as Sales Manager in corporate companies such as Unilever, Henkel and Philips in the FMCG sector. However, the desire to get away from the cumbersome corporate system and to be in a more dynamic working environment prevailed. For this reason, we decided to be companions in business life as well as our life friendship and established Voyazia.

What special role does your wife play at Voyazia and how does her experience benefit the agency?

Mrs Ebru is responsible for all our sales and land tours. As we have adopted boutique service as our founding philosophy, we are in one-to-one contact with our guests as company owners. The purpose of this is to convey Voyazia's company mission to our guests in the most accurate way and Mrs Ebru is very successful in this regard. In addition, we benefit from her experience in determining and realising Voyazia's sales and marketing strategies.

How do you and your wife co-operate and share responsibilities within the agency?

We can say that the sharing of work and responsibilities actually developed spontaneously from the very beginning. While I was working on Voyazia's infrastructure in terms of system, destination and product, Mrs Ebru focused on sales and marketing from the very first day. While Ebru Hanım was creating Voyazia's boutique identity, I concentrated my work on our online B2B and B2C system www.gemitrend.com on the cruise side, which is my area of expertise, and added the representation of certain cruise companies to Voyazia.