Istanbul's tourist arrivals on rise

Head of the Turkish Hoteliers' Association (TUROB) Timur Bayindir said, despite the estimation of 25 percent increase in tourist arrivals in Istanbul in June, the rise was below the expectation with 2 percent increase because of Gezi Park demonstrations. Timur Bayindir said hotel occupancy rates decreased in June comparing with the same period last year due to Gezi Park protests. Evaluating the effect of Gezi Park protests on the tourism sector, Bayindir told AA that the incidents affected the sector in a negative way especially with the high number of cancellations for the hotels in theTaksim region in June, the beginning of the incidents. Meanwhile, Director of Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TURSAB) Basaran Ulusoy said the tourism sector will get busier during the Ramadan holiday season. Ulusoy said the number of tourists who have arrived in Turkey increased 18.47 percent to 10 million 474 thousand 569 people during January-May period of 2013 comparing with the same period of last year. Germany was at first row with an incoming tourist number in the period of January-May 2013 while Russia is the second country and Georgia is the third country, Ulusoy added. Ulusoy also said in this period, most of the tourists arrived in Istanbul with 38.07 percent while Antalya is the second with 25.48 and Edirne is the third with 8.80 percent. Reminding tourism revenue was 19.2 percent of export revenues and covered 34.9 percent of foreign trade deficit in 2012, Ulusoy estimated that tourist arrivals in Turkey would be around 33 million and tourism revenue would be around 31.5 million USD in 2013.