Turkey Declared "Guest Country" For 2010 ITB

BERLIN - Turkey was declared as the "guest country" of 2010 ITB during the 42nd International Travel and Tourism Bourse (ITB) in Berlin, Germany.
Turkish Culture & Tourism Minister Ertugrul Gunay signed "guest country" protocol on Thursday.
Gunay told reporters, "Turkey hosted 23,350,000 tourists in 2007 with an increase of three times of world average."
He added that more than 4 million German tourists visited Turkey last year.
ITB is a very important convention place in the aspect of tourism, Gunay said and added that Turkey has been participating in ITB since 1968.
Gunay said Turkish western province of Izmir is a candidate to host Expo 2015, and also Vatican declared 2008 as "St. Paul Year" thus, southern town of Tarsus and province of Mersin --where St. Paul lived-- will be developed. He added that Turkey was declared as "guest country" of Frankfurt Book Fair this year too.
(GC-MS)