Tourism kicks off 2008 run with good start in Turkey
Tourism kicks off 2008 run with good start in Turkey
Turkey’s tourism industry continued its upward trend after completing a solid tourism year in 2007, recording a 9.6 percent surge in the first month of 2008.
According to “Arriving and Departing Visitors” figures released by the Culture and Tourism Ministry yesterday, 1.4 million people passed through Turkey’s border gates in January, up from 1.37 million in January 2007; 782,786 were arriving foreigners and the remaining 631,578 were returning Turkish citizens. Entries through sea ports increased 13.45 percent, and the number of visitors coming to Turkey by rail rose 4.1 percent while 3.27 percent more visitors preferred to cross the nation’s borders through highways. The number of those who flew into Turkey also increased by 2.3 percent. The largest number of visitors came from Germany as usual with a total of 134,508 people traveling to Turkey. Bulgaria was a surprising second, surpassing the number of Russian tourists. İstanbul was the favorite destination once more, with 45.6 percent of visitors to the country landing in this metropolis.
Source:Todayszaman