Tourism earns Turkey 15.9 bln dollars in 2004

ANKARA, Jan 26 (AFP) - Turkey earned 15.9 billion dollars from its booming tourism sector in 2004, a year which saw a record number of foreigners visiting the country, the state statistics institute said Wednesday.
The figure represents a 32.5-percent increase from tourism revenues in 2003.
Foreign visitors spent 12.1 billion dollars in the country last year, while local tourists contributed another 3.8 billion dollars to the sector, the institute said.
The number of foreigners visiting Turkey increased by 24.8 percent to a record 17.5 million last year compared to 2003, the tourism ministry announced earlier this month.
Germans formed the largest group with 3.9 million, while Russians were second with 1.6 million and Britons third with 1.3 million.
Tourism was Turkey's leading source of foreign earnings in 2003 with 14 million tourists and 13.2 billion dollars in income.

01/26/2005 09:26 GMT - AFP