KONYA, Feb 18 (A.A) - Tourists from the United States constituted most of the tourists who visited Mevlana Museum in central province of Konya in 2001.
Konya Provincial Tourism Director Ibrahim Tekbas told the A.A on Monday that a total of 1,558,907 tourists, including 320,153 foreigners, visited Konya which is an important cultural city of Central Turkey in 2001.
According to the statistics of Provincial Directorate of Tourism, 43,954 foreign tourists stayed in the hotels in Konya between May and December 2001.
A total of 9,159 American tourists came first among other tourists
spending their holidays in Konya in the same period.
Japan with 6,332 tourists and Germany with 5,985 tourists followed the United States.
Pointing out that the number of American tourists visiting Konya increased considerably compared to the previous years, Tekbas said, ''American tourists' interests in Mevlana is increasing gradually each year. If the September 11 attacks in the United States had not taken place, this number would have been much higher.''
Tekbas stated that they would expect an increase in the number of tourists visiting Mevlana and the other museums in the province as of March, and added that they expected that the number of the tourists which remained at around 320,000 last year would reach 450,000 in 2002.