Turkey forecasts over 30 mln tourists by end of year

Turkey's culture and tourism minister said on Monday that Turkey would host more than 30 million tourists by the end of this year.

Ertugrul Gunay said Turkey would achieve its target to host 30 million tourists in 2011.

"We will host more than 30 million tourists this year," Gunay said as he paid a courtesy visit to Anadolu Agency's Executive Board Chairman and Director General Kemal Ozturk after Ozturk took over the position.

Gunay also said the ministry was working on a new tourism income calculation method with the Turkish statistics authority, TurkStat, and was planning to base the calculation on more scientific grounds.

According to ministry's recent reports, number of tourists visiting Turkey went up 10.64 percent in the first seven months of 2011 when compared to the same period last year and reached 17,624,969.

Number of tourists visiting Turkey in July went up 5.49 percent when compared to the same month last year and reached 4,597,475.

Most of the tourists that came to Turkey in July were Germans, followed by Russians and the British.


/World Bulletin/