Türkiye hopes for 30 million tourists in 2010

AA- Ertugrul Gunay, the Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, set a target to host 30 million tourists in Türkiye in 2010, despite the ongoing global economic crisis. Gunay said, "We are expecting around 26 million tourists this year and our target for 2010 is 30 million.” Ertugrul Gunay also stated that Türkiye ranked 7th in the world in terms of number of tourists and 9th in terms of revenue from the tourism sector. The Turkish Minister also said the number of visitors increased 1.1 percent as of July over the same period last year, while other Mediterranean countries continued to see sharp drops - such as Spain, which lost 5-8 percent of its visitors. Gunay stated that the number of tourists from France increased to 1 million in 2009 after the "Turkish Season in France" and added that 2010 will be the "Japanese Year" in Türkiye.