Turkey expects to achieve USD 30 billion of revenue in tourism by 2018
Tourism has been as some call it a “Smokeless Industry” for Turkey and indeed a foreign revenue generating sector for the country. Looking at a few decades in the past, Turkey did not have the potential to challenge tourism countries such as Greece and Spain due to lack of essential infrastructure and facilities whereas now it is among the leading destinations in Europe.
The administrations aware of this potential in Turkey have not failed to attribute tourism issue the importance it deserves. Within this scope, Turkey’s tourism minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said in a statement he made that Turkey’s tourism sector is expected reach 30 billion dollars in revenue in 2018, with increased incentives and increased visitor numbers for tour operators in said year.
Increasing security fears following a coup attempt and a series of bombed attacks reduced Turkey’s tourism revenues to $ 22.11 billion in 2016 from $ 31.46 billion in 2015.
However, thanks to the rapid increase in Russian tourists in April following the development of relations between Moscow and Ankara, the tourism sector enjoyed was a recovery and is back on the right track again. The figures for the third quarter of 2017 shows a rebound of about 40% on an annual basis.
