Turkey moves up in tourism ranks

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

DHA photo

Turkey is the only country in the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) list that moved up among the top ten rankings from seventh to sixth place in 2011. 

The UNWTO is the United Nations agency responsible for the promotion of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. Each year it publishes the “Tourism Highlights Edition” and in the 2012 edition, Turkey was the only country able to move up in the top ten rankings. 

In 2010 Turkey registered in seventh spot, but was able to creep up a notch in 2011 to sixth place with 29.3 million visiting tourists. Turkey was able to supersede England on the list and ranked twelfth in terms of tourism receipts. While England ranked one spot behind Turkey in tourist arrivals in seventh place, it also came in seventh in terms of receipts. 

“We are working night and day to reach our [tourism] targets,” said Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay. 

France continues to lead the ranking of international tourist arrivals (79 million), and ranks third in receipts ($54 billion), while the United States ranks first in receipts ($116 billion) and second in arrivals (62 million). 

Spain is still the second largest earner worldwide and the first in Europe ($60 billion), while ranking fourth in the world by arrivals (57 million). 

China continues to rank third in arrivals (58 million) and fourth in receipts ($48 billion), while Italy remains in fifth place in both arrivals (46 million) and receipts ($43 billion).

Germany continues to rank eighth in tourist arrivals and sixth in receipts, while Malaysia is ninth and fourteenth respectively. Australia, Macao (China), and Hong Kong (China) complete the top ten ranking by receipts in eighth, ninth and tenth place respectively, while Mexico closes the top ten by arrivals in tenth position, according to the report.