Turkey attracts more holidaymakers

Wednesday January 30th , 2008

Turkey is becoming more and more popular with international leisure travellers, according to new figures.

Research by the UN World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) showed that visitor numbers in the south-east European country went up by 18 per cent last year.

This was higher than the increase recorded in countries such as Italy, Portugal and Greece during the same period.

The figures are likely to be welcomed by tourist authorities in Turkey, as well as people with interests related to the sector.

For example, many owners of buy-to-let property in the country will be benefiting from increased demand from holidaymakers, resulting in them earning higher rental yields.

UNWTO figures showed that Europe accounted for more than half of the worldwide tourist trade in 2007, while on a worldwide scale, the number of leisure travellers rose by six per cent to almost 900 million.

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, international tourism has not been negatively affected by ongoing economic problems.