Turkey: New tourism promotion agency proposed

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's ruling Justice and Development (AK) Party on Wednesday submitted a bill to establish a new agency to promote and develop tourism in the country.

"Our main objective is to help Turkey take a larger slice of tourism revenues," Mehmet Mus, the AK Party deputy chair, told Anadolu Agency.

The new Tourism Publicity and Development Agency also aims to raise recognition of Turkey to the highest level, said Mus.

He said that the agency will also "help boost the number of tourists as well as the expenditures per tourist."

Mus added that the agency will have a 13-person board, including the CEO of national flag carrier Turkish Airlines (THY) and representatives of the public tourism sector.

The number of foreign arrivals in Turkey surged 11.3% year-on-year in the first five months of this year, according to official data.

Nearly 12.8 million foreigners visited the country this January-May, compared to 11.5 million in the same period last year.

Russians made up 13.1% of the foreign visitors (or 1.8 million), followed by Germans at 9.5% (1.2 million), and Bulgarians at 7.7% (more than 980,000).