A group of tourists, the first one this year from Belgium, has arrived at Ohrid’s St. Paul the Apostle airport by a Brussels-Ohrid charter flight organized by the Thomas Cook travel company.
A total of 120 guests were welcomed at the airport by TAV Macedonia CEO Zoran Krstevski, Serkan Karahatay, marketing coordinator at TAV Airports in Istanbul, and Ohrid Mayor Nikola Bakraceski.
Karahatay called the cooperation established with Thomas Cook ‘one of the best examples.’ According to him, a contact with Thomas Cook officials had been established three years ago at a Las Vegas conference.
“After long-running talks, we have finally managed to convince them to come to Ohrid and examine the opportunities for cooperation last year. After getting in touch with government representatives and tourist professionals in Macedonia, they have finally decided to introduce this flight,” Karahatay told a news conference Monday in Ohrid after welcoming the tourists from Belgium.
He said he hoped the Ohrid Airport soon would start offering new services, i.e. flights from countries where Thomas Cook was operating, namely the Netherlands, Germany, the UK, etc.
Founded 175 years ago, Thomas Cook is a company always striving to be closer to its clients, according to the company’s spokesman.
“Thomas Cook is a leading company on the tourist market and thus we should maintain our creativity and innovation in order to grow further. Launching this maiden flight to Ohrid, we are once again being innovative by introducing a new destination into our offer, said Koen van den Bosch.
According to Mayor Bakraceski, the establishment of a fresh cooperation with Thomas Cook and the introduction of a Brussels-Ohrid-Brussels flight was ‘a historic moment’, which provided a fresh impetus to tourism development in Ohrid and beyond.
The flight connecting Ohrid and Brussels will operate once a week, i.e. every Monday, until mid-September.