Tourist numbers expected to exceed 30 million

Culture and Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay has said that Turkey is expecting to host up 33 million tourists by the end of this year despite the crisis in the Middle East and economic recession in Europe. "We will surpass 30 million threshold in tourist arrivals this year", Gunay told reporters adding that an income of over 25 billion dolllars is expected to be earned from tourism in 2012. "There are problems in the Middle East. We have been affected by the problems with Israel since 2009. We will also see the consequences of the problems with Syria. Yet, we are still expecting to host up 31 to 33 million tourists this year," Gunay said. According to figures released by the Turkish Statistical Institute, Turkey earned 23 billion dollars from tourism in 2011.