The seaside in Antalya is very popular with foreign tourists, including Moldovan, Turkish tour operators say. Ahmet Canga, the cultural attaché of the Embassy of Turkey based in Kiev, told a news conference on Chisinau on Friday he was very glad that Turkey was one of the favorite destinations for the Moldovan tourists, Info-Prim Neo reports. About 4,000 Moldovans holidayed on the Mediterranean Sea in the country situated on two continents last year. “The people started already to make reservations for the 2009 season. The number of reservations is larger compared with the corresponding period last year,” Ahmet Canga said. According to him, the business tourism prevails in such towns as Istanbul and Antalya, which have many hotels with conference halls and attract businesspersons from all over the world, including Moldova. Anna Gherasimovscaia, representative of the marketing and sales department for the CIS of the Turkish hotel chain Pappilon Hotels, said that 60-70% of the hotels’ clients come from the Commonwealth of Independent States. Speaking about the effects of the world economic crisis, representatives of Pappilon Hotels and Confort Flora Beach said it was too early to consider decreasing prices because most of the reservations are made starting with May. “The prices depend directly on the quality of services. Often, when a hotel reduced the prices, it wants to make savings and, as a result, the quality of services decreases,” Anna Gherasimovscaia said. Turkey is among the top ten counties of the world by tourism profitability. The conference was held as part of the International Specialized Exhibition “Tourism. Leisure. Hotels 2009” held at Moldexpo.