Turkey in top league of tourism business

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Nearly 1,200 participants from 55 countries attended the United Nations Tourism Summit in Istanbul. DAH photo

Turkey has become one of the top 10 countries for tourism, said Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) President Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu at the United Nations Tourism Summit at Istanbul’s Haliç Congress Center yesterday.

The event was jointly organized by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB).

The sector’s annual 10 percent growth in Turkey surpasses the world average at 3 percent, Hisarcıklıoğlu said. The global tourism growth will present $300 billion of revenue opportunity in the next seven years, he said.

Nearly 1,200 participants, more than 300 of which were foreign, from 55 countries making up 91 percent of the global tourism sector attended the event.

Turkey has been involved in the tourism sector for about 25 years, Tourism and Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay, said at the event. “Tourism will be one of the founding sectors of the 21st century,” he said. The global number of tourists hit 1 billion, Appointed Executive Director of the UN-HABITAT Joan Clos said, adding that the tourism sector was a part of the economy of today and tomorrow.