About Arya Yachting & tours

Arya was founded in late 1984 by seven partners. Within a short time, the company had gained four more partners, making a total of 11 joint owners. All the partners have known each other since their student days in the early 1970s, and seven attended the same German-speaking high school, Istanbul Erkek Lisesi.

In 1985, Arya was granted its license as a yacht management agent. In 1989, a second company, Arya Tours was set up for the organization of land tours.

Of the current 11 partners, four are full-time employees and one is active part-time as chairman. Another four are in constant contact with the company, while a further two live relatively far away and are not involved in the daily operations.

The first five years were the company’s development phase. Once this phase had ended, and despite the continuous crises that have plagued the Turkish tourist industry, Arya earned a reputation for trustworthiness. In our first years of operation, our total number of guests ranged from 300 to 1,000 per season; after weathering a few fluctuations, we achieved a total of 3,000 guests per season by the end of the 1990s.

Since that time, we have been focusing on raising not the total number of guests, but the standard and quality of our service. At present, Arya Yachting is one of the top 10 among some 50 yacht charter companies in our sector, and Arya Tours is considered a specialized organizer for study and hiking tours among close to 3,500 travel organizers registered with the Turkish travel agency association TÜRSAB.

Our first yacht, the NOSTALGIA was finished in 1985. Since then, we carry out yacht tours along the southwest coast of Turkey. Our main office is in Bodrum from where the first "Blue Cruises" started. All land–arrangements are carried out through our office in Antalya.

Arya employs a total of 21 people , six of these make up the crews of the company’s own two yachts. Five employees are joint owners of the firm, an additional two are drivers, and the remaining 8 people are office personnel in Bodrum and Antalya. In addition, Arya charters each season approx. 50 yachts for short or long terms, which means having around 150 people as short term employees.

In the yacht charter sector, Arya has this year 50% customers through direct contacts and  “repeat-clients”, some have travelled with us for years – we consider them part of our growing family !.

We look forward to helping have the best holiday in Turkey.

The ARYA Yachting & Tours Team