Posted by meb at June 18th, 2007

“The recession process in the Turkish tourism sector which began last year, has recently stopped and an increase has started,” said Ahmet Barut, chairman of Turkish Hotels Federation (TUROFED). Underscoring that the number of Russian and Ukrainian tourists who visited the Mediterranean city of Antalya in the first 5 months of 2007 increased 30 percent over the same period of last year, Barut said number of European tourists rose compared to last year’s figures as well.
Barut stressed that the highest increase in the number of tourists, was experienced in Istanbul and Cappadocia respectively.
“Number of tourists who came to Istanbul since the beginning of 2007, increased 30 percent over the same period of last year. Many Japanese, South Korean, Asian, Far Eastern and American tourists prefer Istanbul this year. They mainly visit the city for business purposes, congresses and culture tourism,” Barut noted.
“Starting from next year, Turkish tourism will enter a new improvement phase which will last 4-5 years. The number of tourists coming to Turkey will rise by 50 percent within 5 years and it will exceed 30 million,” he affirmed.

source: The New Anatolian

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