Turkey ranks third in increasing tourism revenues

According to the World Tourism Organization 2013 report on global tourism, Turkey ranks the third in increasing tourism revenues for the first eight months of 2013 with an increase of 22%, compared to the same period of the previous year. Commenting on the report at his ruling Justice and Development Party's (AKP) group meeting on Tuesday, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, "We have achieved significant success in tourism in the first eight months of 2013. Our tourism revenue was $ 16 billion in the first eight months of 2012, whereas it reached $ 19 billion during the same period in 2013. 22 million tourists visited our country in the first 8 months of the previous year and the number of tourists increased by 11 percent this year to reach 24 million." Erdogan shared the World Tourism Organization's recently released barometer of global tourism trends, according to which Thailand ranked the first with 27 percent, Hong Kong ranked the second with 25 percent and Turkey ranked the third with 22 percent.