Hurriyet English with wires
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Temmuz 07, 2008 12:54
Turkey expects 26-27 million tourists in 2008, Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay told state-run Anatolian Agency on Monday, and the number of tourists to visit Turkey in the first half of 2008 increased 15 percent over to the same period of 2007, he added.
Nearly 23 million tourist visited Turkey in 2007, Gunay said.
He said the number of tourists to visit Turkey in the first half of this year increased by 15 percent compared to the same period last year. The Turkish government would support culture tourism in Anatolia as a developing area.
The number of foreign tourists to visit Istanbul also increased by 16 percent and to reach 3.2 million in the first half of 2008 compared to the same period last year.
German tourists top the list of foreigners who preferred Turkey for their vacation. They were followed by Russian, British, Bulgarian, Iranian, Dutch, Georgian, French, Ukrainian and Greek tourists according to May figures.
The number of the tourists visiting Turkey had also increased 20.15 percent compared to the same month in May 2007.
Photo: AA
