ANKARA - Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu said on Thursday that Turkish tourism succeeded in overcoming many crises, adding that ''people talked about intensive cancellations in tourism due to the terrorist attacks in Istanbul, but the figures we have don't confirm them.''
Mumcu held a news conference the same day on ''Turkish tourism and recent developments,'' and noted that there was no significant cancellations in reservations and the tourism in November was fine.
Mumcu stated that discussions on SARS disease, 11 Sept. attacks, Iraqi war and the discussions as to whether Turkey would join Iraqi war or not affected the travel motivation in the world, adding that Turkey was able to overcome those crises.
Noting that Mumcu said that the 11-month data of the tourism in the year 2003 were the best figures of the Turkish tourism history, Mumcu said that ''our best figure in tourism to date which was 12,696,255 tourists in 2002, increased to 13,320,701 in the first 11 months of the year 2003. We will probably have 14 million tourists at the end of the year 2003 with a ten percent increase when compared to last year. In November 2002, 662,985 tourists came to Turkey, this number increased by 16 percent and reached 768,060 this year. The number of tourists coming to Istanbul also increased by 4 percent and exceeded 222,000 in November this year. These figures show us the dynamism of the Turkish tourism and the growth potential.''
Evaluating the terrorist attacks in Istanbul, Mumcu said that ''I don't say that the terrorist incidents in Istanbul didn't cause any affect, but I don't want to exaggerate the negative consequences of these incidents. That is why, I wanted to share these figures with the public opinion.''
Stressing that Turkish tourism sector was a sector which was growing rapidly and soundly in the world, Mumcu said that 2004 would be a miraculous year for Turkish tourism sector. He added that the sector would continue to be locomotive of Turkish economy.
When asked whether or not the decision of UEFA affected European sport clubs which wanted to camp in Turkey, Mumcu said that 1.400 European clubs made reservations for hotels in Antalya and stated that reservations were not cancelled.
Upon a question, Mumcu said that each foreign tourist who came to Turkey for holiday spent averagely 700 U.S. dollars.
Erkan Mumcu stated that a special promotion campaign would be made for Istanbul and added that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would announce it soon.
(Öª-EÖ-AÖ) 04.12.2003