ISTANBUL - Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that the priority of 2010 tourism vision was to protect cultural heritage and to bring more cultural diversity and richness of Turkey to the front.
Erdogan and Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu held a joint press conference and announced 2010 tourism vision of Turkey and the government`s tourism policies and targets.
Noting that they did not see tourism only as an economic concept, Erdogan said that basis of their tourism vision was to show Turkey, its culture and people within its own nature, reality and beauty, thus their tourism approach was focused on environment. He added that their priority of 2010 tourism vision was to protect cultural heritage and to bring cultural diversity and richness of Turkey to front.
Erdogan said that they aimed to form necessary organized infrastructure to fulfill this priority by uniting culture and tourism ministries so that in the coming period the dynamism of tourism economy would be united with cultural environment sensitivity.
Noting that the income of museums and ruins would not be spent for areas which were not related with the protection of cultural heritage, Erdogan said that those incomes would be reserved directly for those works of art.
Erdogan said that revolving fund was turned into an institution which could reserve source more than 50 million dollars annually for cultural heritage.
NUMBER OF TOURISTS COMING TO TURKEY TO REACH 30 MILLION AS OF 2010
Erdogan said that at least 300 million dollars would be allocated for projects of protecting the cultural inheritance in 2004.
Erdogan stressed that it was time to start the second period of recording progress in tourism sector. Noting that the government developed tourism projects related to sports in addition to sea-sand-sun tourism, Erdogan said that the government also gave priority to hot springs tourism.
Erdogan noted that the government also lifted the obstacles in front of civilian airlines, adding that they rearranged the airport schedules, and they cancelled some special taxes. Erdogan stated that tourists who would come to Turkey for a short time would have the opportunity to see the beauties of Anadolu for few days by those flights. Erdogan stressed that they would give importance to qualified tourism understanding rather than one focusing on numbers.
Erdogan remarked that the government would put into practice those tourism projects in two-stage process covering the years between 2004-2006 and 2006-2010.
Erdogan said that ``as of 2010, the number of tourists coming to Turkey would reach 30 millions, and we will gain an annual tourism income of 30 billion dollars as a result of product diversification projects. The bed capacity of Turkey on a qualified basis will exceed one million, this means that the established bed capacity of Turkey in tourism will increase by two folds. We can foresee undertaking of at least 25 billion dollars of new investment in seven years.`` Erdogan said that those investments would have positive effects on 36 related sectors and increase employment.
Erdogan stated that the number of persons employed in tourism sector would reach 3 millions and this figure would create employment for 1.5 million more people in this sector in seven years.
Erdogan noted that the government also attributed great importance to Istanbul projects, adding that the priority of the government in Istanbul was to save, protect the historical peninsula. He said Istanbul`s getting the place it deserved in Turkish tourism with its real potential was very important.
The government had projects of forming new tourism regions such as Tarsus Tourism Region and Dalaman Tourism City projects, said Erdogan noting that they would also give importance to cultural projects in southeastern provinces of Diyarbakýr, Batman, Gaziantep, Adýyaman, Sanlýurfa, and Mardin.
He added that many projects were prepared for winter, plateau and culture tourism in the Black Sea and East Anadolu region.
Culture and Tourism Minister Erkan Mumcu said in his part that tourism economy had an important place in total Turkish economy, adding that the share of tourism economy in Turkey`s GNP was approximately 5 percent.
Mumcu stated that tourism brought 10 billion dollars of income to Turkey and created employment for 1.5 million persons every year, adding that this figure constituted one fourth of the registered employment.
Mumcu said that the potential and opportunities of the Turkish tourism were bigger, adding that it was yet a matter of vision and project to turn this potential into product, investment, employment and income.

(ÖÞ) 11.01.2004
(GC-Öª) 11.01.2004