Turkey: Russian tourists to surpass Germans

Each year, the number of Russian tourists to Turkey inches up, and it will soon surpass the number of visitors from Germany, the country from which the most tourists come to Turkey. Last year, 3.5 million Russian tourists came to Turkey, while the number of German tourists, including Turks with German passports, was 4.8 million. The high quality of Turkey's tourism facilities and professional services has made Turkey an important brand in global tourism, the president of Turkey's Tourism Investors Foundation (TYD), Turgut Gur, told the Anatolia news agency. While most countries recorded a drop in the number of tourists last year, Turkey saw a 15% increase from the year before, with 31.5 million tourists, said Gur. He expects 33 million tourists to visit Turkey in 2012, and that the country will see 5 billion USD in tourism revenues. ''All our early reservations are completely booked. We have not been affected by the European economic crisis. We see an increase in tourism revenues from Lebanon, Russia and Kazakhstan, countries unaffected by the crisis,'' Gur said, noting that every year more and more Russian tourists are interested in vacationing in Turkey, particularly in Antalya and Belek on Turkey's Mediterranean coast.