Corendon Vliegvakanties is a Dutch-Belgian tour operator specialised in Turkey. Corendon Airlines is the Turkish charter company of Corendon. Its fleet consists of 9 planes that provide flights to Antalya, Bodrum and Istanbul from Amsterdam, Eindhoven and Brussels. Apart from separate flights to the Turkish sun, Corendon is mainly specialised in package holidays to Mediterranean Sea destinations such as Turkey, Greece, Egypt, Morocco and Cyprus. RCA was asked to take care of PR for the Belgian market. The main objective was increasing Corendon’s brand familiarity in a country where holidays by air are invariably dominated by duopolists Jetair and Thomas Cook.
Traditional all-in holiday formulas still generate most bookings, also at Corendon. Still, during the first year, RCA resolutely concentrated on the niche products, such as cycling holidays with José De Cauwer, Formula 1 trips to Istanbul and sunny holidays in the Turkish part of Cyprus. Thanks to their uniqueness, these formulas have the necessary PR value and Corendon positions itself as the Turkey specialist. This can only benefit brand familiarity...
RCA organised 2 group holidays (a cycling holiday in Finike and an introductory trip in Northern Cyprus) and 6 individual press trips to Antalya, Bodrum and Istanbul. Here, the focus lay on the tourism and lifestyle press.
We also created a press kit in the framework of 'Istanbul, cultural capital of Europe', which included tips for an original trip to this lively town. Finally, we concluded several interesting deals, such as a listeners competition via Q-Music where a Formula 1 arrangement in Istanbul could be won every day for a week.
We also supported Corendon in the field of crisis communication. For instance, there was the story of the pilot without a valid license and the eruption of the volcano in Iceland that brought the entire flight traffic above Europe to a standstill.
RCA also gave ad hoc communication advice and followed up editorial calendars and current affairs in view of offering interesting PR opportunities.
On a corporate level, the stationing of a first plane at Zaventem, the launch of an iPhone app and the figures of the summer bookings for 2010 provided plenty of press attention. We also regularly played off the CEO of Corendon, Atilay Uslu, as a visionary business manager in the travel industry. This resulted in several large articles in newspapers such as 'Vacature' and 'Het Laatste Nieuws'.
During several crisis moments, we tried to reassure Belgian travellers through several reactive statements and detailed press monitoring and keep the faith in Corendon.
