Turkey to host 200,000 Chinese tourists by end of 2017: Minister

BEIJING - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Minister said on Sept. 11 that he expects 200,000 Chinese tourists to visit the country by the end of this year.      

Numan Kurtulmuş met Chinese Culture Minister Luo Shugang in China’s capital Beijing on the sidelines of a session of the U.N. World Tourism Organization.   
  
“Turkey and China need to strengthen cooperation, and this is impossible without cultural exchange and tourism,” Kurtulmuş said.      

China has declared 2018 as the “Turkey Tourism Year.”   

Kurtulmuş added that he hopes the One Belt, One Road project - which aims to connect Asia and Europe through 65 countries - will improve Sino-Turkish relations in all aspects.      

Luo praised porcelain artifacts exhibited in the Topkapı Palace in Istanbul.     
 
“China is known for its porcelain, but I have not seen the porcelain I saw in Topkapı Palace even in China,” Luo said.

Kurtulmuş visited historic and tourist sites in Beijing after the meeting.