H1 Data on Turkish Tourism Figures Positive
The latest data from the Turkish tourism ministry confirms that revealed by Turkstat several days ago and covered on this blog, but with some interesting facts picked out.
According to the ministry while Germany continued its reign as biggest tourism market, with 1.68 million visitors in the first half of this year, it was not in the top 3 in June, when Russia sent the highest number of tourists followed by Britain, Iran and Bulgaria. It was also interesting to see that Russia was the second biggest market in the first half of the year, a spot usually held by Britain.
The data showed a 7.6% year on year growth in visitor numbers in June, and a growth of 9.26% year on year for the first half of the year. The total number of visitors in the first half of this year was 11.57million, meaning that if Turkey hits the 4million plus visitors expected for a July and August then we are well on the way to hitting the expected 28-29 million for the year.
The other noteworthy figure from the tourism ministry, was confirmation that the visa-free travel deal with Syria is having the desired effect. According to the data the number of Syrian tourists increased from 179,717 in June last year, to 375,450 in June this year.
All the signs are pointing to 2010 being a very strong year for Turkish tourism — we may even get close to the 30 million target set at the height of the boom.
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