DUSSELDORF - Tourism Minister Guldal Aksit who attended the ceremony held upon the publication of ''Summer Catalogue'' of Gorgulu Travel International (GTI) in Dusseldorf, said on Saturday that Turkey reached 11.5 billion dollars of tourism income last year calling on tourism operators to believe and invest in Turkey.
Addressing the gala dinner in which the new promotion film of Turkey which will be broadcast in tv channels of 55 countries, was also shown for the first time, Tourism Minister Aksit said that Turkey completed the year 2002 with success in tourism sector. Noting that 13.2 milion tourists visited Turkey last year and Turkey gained a tourism income of 10.5 billion dollars, Aksit said that this figure reaches 11.5 billion dollars when the Turkish citizens living in Europe and those who come to Turkey for holiday are included in it.
Aksit said that tour operators expect an increase of 15 percent in tourist number in the year 2003, adding ''we target to increase the number of tourists to 15 millions.''
''Turkey will become the most important tourism centres of the world...We have the newest and most qualified touristic installations in the Mediterranean basin and we aim to strengthen our advantageous status with new investments. I request tourism operators to continue believing in Turkey and to increase their investments in Turkey. If they do that, they will be advantegous,'' she said.
GTI Executive Board President Talha Gorgulu said that Tourism Ministry has to make investments in tourism sector which is the biggest industry of Turkey. ''Even if the Iraqi war frigthenes us, this incident is in fact a minor incident. We should not be afraid of it. We had 40,000 pre-sales to date and the sales continue. Turkey has become a trademark in tourism sector. Our sales were 300 million dollars last year, and we have 1,200 employees today. SKY airlines will buy its fifth airplane in 2003,'' he said.
GTI Executive Board member Isa Gorgulu said in his part that SKY airlines will bring tourists to Turkey from 18 airports of Europe by having 52 flights in one week. Gorgulu said that they aim to bring 400,000 tourists to Turkey in the year 2003.