JOLLY TUR TO INCREASE DESTINATIONS AND ACHIEVE 40 PERCENT GROWTH

Jolly Tur, which has enjoyed one of the best years, snagging a large piece of the tourism industry's cake, sent 300,000 people on vacation in 2010.
Joly Tur Chairman of the Executive Board Mete Vardar says they have gone beyond making vacations just a dream. According to Jolly Tur General Manager Figen Erkan, they plan to grow by 40 percent this year. Erkan went on to state that they have pulled their early booking campaign forward by one month compared to the campaign's start in 2010. They began this past Monday, and received a good number of reservations according to Erkan and therefore, she explains, they will be setting aside 45 percent of their capacity for early reservations.
120 INTERNATIONAL OPTIONS
Jolly Tur International Tour Manager Tolga Tekin states that they saw 97 percent growth in 2010 in international tours and that the lifting of visa regulations and the drop in passport fees were influential in reaching this figure. Tekin also notes plans to add destinations in Lebanon, the Balkans, Serbia, the Côte d'Azur, southern Italy as well as a number of exotic islands, bringing the number of locations served from 80 to 120.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ADDED TO INTERNET WEBSITE
Erkan states that in 2011, the most significant innovation planned will be in the realm of technology. Jolly Tur IT Manager Göksel Yenilmez, with Microsoft's collaboration, has realized a first in the tourism industry by downloading Jolly Tatil TV with Microsoft 7 products to computers, transforming the Jolly Tur website into an interactive experience using artificial intelligence as well as semantics. The website will become active within a few weeks according to Yenilmez, who mentions that they have also newly developed an iphone application that has become one of the top ten downloaded applications in its first three weeks.