Turkey earns over 25 bln USD in tourism

Turkish Culture & Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay said that Turkey earned more than 25 billion USD from 30 million tourists it hosted in 2011. We hope to earn 50 billion USD by hosting 50 million tourists within the next ten years, Gunay told AA on Monday. Turkey is the 6th country in the world in the aspect of the number of tourists it hosts in 2011, said Gunay, adding that Turkey prepared a road map to take place among top five countries. Gunay noted that more than 10 million of 30 million tourists visiting Turkey preferred to stay in southern Antalya province which showed that Turkey was considered a country of sea, sand and sun tourism. This is not a bad thing, but tourism should be diversified in order to be sustainable, he said, adding that Turkey had historical and archeological beauties and rich natural resources and architectural potential. Gunay also said that Turkey earned 256 million Turkish lira from the tourists visiting the museums in the country in 2011.