ANTALYA - Tourism in southern Antalya province which stagnated due to the Iraqi war, started to revive. The number of tourists coming to Antalya region increases every day.
Mediterranean Touristic Hotels Union (AKTOB) Chairman Osman Ayik told A.A correspondent that there was a stagnation in world tourism and Turkey also negatively affected from that.
Ayik said that ''there was stagnation in world tourism in March, Turkey was one of the countries which affected from the war the least although it was a neighbour of Iraq.''
Noting that tourism will revive in Antalya particularly after May 15, Ayik said that ''there is a great interest in Antalya particularly from European countries. This interest is seen clearly both in fairs and also during the meetings we have with tour operators. The number of tourists coming to Antalya after May 15 will increase. We hope that we will have five million tourists this year like we had last year... There is no need for anybody to get worried. This season will be very well.''
Stressing that many German tourists came to Antalya region last year, Osman Ayik said that ''Germans travel the most among other peoples of Europe. Germans prefer Spain, and then Turkey for holiday. This season we expect Germans to come the most to Antalya again. Russian tourists will follow German tourists.''
Ayik said that 2.34 million Germans; 538,482 Russians; 355,153 Dutch; 227,801 Austrians and 137,710 French tourists came to Antalya in 2002.
(ÖS-AÖ) 07.05.2003