Our Achievements

Fairy Chimneys Travel has played a leading role in promoting Turkish culture, history, community affairs and travel since 2001. Here are some of our achievements:

2001

November: Fairy Chimneys Travel was formed and granted its Travel Agents License. Operations started from home office.

December: FCT sold its first international ticket on JAL from Istanbul to Brisbane.
We participated in the union of Australian Friends of Turkey 's celebration of Turkey at Como House in Melbourne . A two day event detailing various aspects of Turkish arts and craft, music and dance, history, people and food.

2002

Spreading the word at large corporate businesses, we started building confidence and customers. Small breaks, packages and tours have been organised. Our first F.I.T. tours were organised in April 2002. 100% satisfaction and referrals followed. Fairy Chimneys Travel had assisted Republic of Turkey Stand at the travel expo, Exhibition Building, Melbourne.

2003

Airfares, F.I.T’s, small packages, our first group travel and Anzac Day organisations started. 100 passengers for Anzac Day 2003 sent to Gallipoli. John Basarin joined FCT as tour leader in Anzac Day & Special Interest tours .

2004

In 2004, we provided all land and air travel for the director and film crew of December films for their shooting on film “Revealing Gallipoli”. Australian and British crews visited and filmed Anzac Cove, Lone Pine and other sites on the Gallipoli Peninsula. Our first ‘Istanbul to Gallipoli Bike Tour’ took off with 4 passengers. Fairy Chimneys Travel moved to its first office away from home at Level 2, 542 Riverdale Camberwell VIC 3124.

2005

2005 saw us raising money for educational resources for underprivileged children in rural Turkey for the Ilkyar Project
In 2005 Fairy Chimneys Travel was instrumental in the film “Gallipoli”. Opening Gala Night was sponsored at Palace Cinemas in Brighton, Victoria. Up and coming young Turkish director Tolga Ornek directed the film which incorporated previously unreleased images from both the Turkish and Australian camps. Tolga and his crew traveled from Turkey to Canberra to gather material for the film.

2006

Fairy Chimneys Travel provided all travel services for the film unit as well as launching the film at Gala Previews around Australia . As winner of a promotional package in 2006 are lucky couple enjoyed a free trip and accommodation in Turkey including the battlefields of Gallipoli, courtesy of Fairy Chimneys Travel.

There were two important events in 2006. As “Special Interest” tours each was led by a different expert in their field. Vecihi (John) Basarin, author of “Gallipoli – the Turkish Story” led a group or 24 members of the Australian Institute of International Affairs (AIIA) on an official visit to Turkey .

They were welcomed on arrival by the mayors of Ankara , the capital of Turkey and Istanbul , their mission to learn about Turkey and visit Gallipoli. In Canakkale they were hosted by the Governor and also attended talks at Bilkent University . Fairy Chimneys Travel covered all aspects of the 19 day tour, providing opportunities for study and meeting as well as visiting various tourist sites.

Fairy Chimneys Travel moves to its current premises at 518 Riversdale Road, Camberwell VIC 3124, a larger and shop-front office.

 

 

2007

Marcus Falay – the managing director of Fairy Chimneys Travel says that there is nothing we cannot do in Turkey. Our next project in September is to facilitate all land and air travel, accommodation and baggage handling for a large team of officials, researchers, divers and film crew to investigate the Australian submarine AE2, sunk in Turkish waters in the Sea of Marmara. This is a huge undertaking which will promote peace and friendship between Turkey and Australia. Providing as it will add another dimension to the on-going story of the Gallipoli campaign.

The AE2 was preserved for future generations by its captain who scuffled the submarine during the Gallipoli Campaign in 1915. It was one of the first of its kind and little is known about it by the general public. Both captain and crew survived but were taken captive by the Turks.

It is proposed firstly that sufficient research is made by an expert diving team to see whether the submarine can be raised.

2008

Fairy Chimneys Travel was nominated and shortlisted for the “Small Business Champion Awards” and the runner up for the best small business in the travel category.

Fairy Chimneys now running ‘special interest’, F.I.T. Tours, ticketing over 1500 airfares in year, employing 4 staff in their Camberwell office, providing ‘wholesale’ services to many retail travel agents around Australia, moves to next stage. Under the parent company ORFIMAR PTY LTD, now 5 entities are running as follows:

FAIRY CHIMNEYS TRAVEL – Top Quality, Special Interest and F.I.T. tours and our premium products.

AUTHENTIC HOLIDAYS –Our wholesale division is created wholly for the Australian Travel Agents. Currently under development, it is projected to release its brochures to the Travel Agents in March 2010. Its fully functional website is also being developed, customers of travel agents and travel agents will benefit from Authentic Holidays as a one-stop-shop for Turkey. Travel Agents registrations are welcome. www.authenticholidays.com.au

GO HOLIDAY TURKEY Adem and Kim Babuc from Statford, Victoria have been running cultural tours to Turkey for the past few years, mainly for the people who live in country Victoria. They are better known as ‘Turkish Magic’ and have been running successful tours to Turkey at very affordable prices. Alongside with Fairy Chimneys Travel and Authentic Holidays, Go Holiday Turkey is now growing each year to provide quality and affordability. Almost 100 passengers are travelling with Go Holiday Turkey in 2010.

TURKEY UNCOVERED – Turkish born Michael Altan, a tourism professional from Istanbul joined the FCT team. His focus is assisting the discerning travelers to Turkey by providing them the ‘perfect match’ touring option. Classic Turkey Tours or Private Arrangements? No problem, Michael will find the match for you.

2009

Despite world economic crises, Fairy Chimneys Travel is arranging holidays and airfares to Turkey more than ever. Repeat and referral business is no secret to the success story, for which is a reward for providing quality service at affordable prices, with consistency.

2010

FCT has started a good year in 2010. We are tailoring programs more than ever. The average number of tailor made tour requests has risen from about 3-4 a week to about 7-8 a week. Authentic Holidays has released their 36 page Full Turkey Brochure. FCT has gone under an image makeover and changed its logo and website. FCT, once again, are at the Travel Expos in Sydney (6-7 March), Melbourne (10-11 April) and Brisbane (16-17-18 April).


Marcus Falay has been working with the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of The Republic of Turkey and Consulates General of Turkey, promoting Turkey at Travel Expos in Melbourne , Sydney and Canberra . Marcus is the president of the Turkish Travel Expo committee and believes that Fairy Chimneys Travel has played a significant role in raising the number of Australian tourists to Turkey. The number of Australian tourists to Turkey has grown from 60,000 per annum in 2005 to about 130,000 in 2009.