Turkish tourism minister expects more foreign visitors

By Tayfun Salci and Inci Gundag

LONDON (AA) - Turkey has major features to attract more foreign visitors, the country's tourism minister said on Wednesday after visiting a London travel fair.

Speaking to journalists at the Turkish embassy in London, Numan Kurtulmus described Turkey as "the world's richest geography", a place which had hosted 24 different civilizations.

Kurtulus described the geography of Anatolia as a land which touches Europe in the west, Asia in the east, the Middle East in the south and where people can observe the four seasons at the same time.

On Tuesday, the minister unveiled Turkey's stand at the World Travel Market, which will be open through Nov. 9 in east London’s ExCeL convention center.

"We will be everywhere, at all international organizations, in all these kind of fairs… We will try hard to promote and represent the Turkish brand as an important value," he said.

Turkey's tourism income peaked in 2014 by $34.3 billion, however, this decreased steadily as 2015 saw $31.4 billion, and last year marked $22 billion.

Earlier this month, Kurtulmus said Turkey had welcomed 26 million tourists in the first nine months of the year and expected to receive a total of 31 million tourists by the end of 2017.

He said around $21 billion in tourist revenue had been generated in the first nine months of the year, a total he expected to see rise to $26 billion by end-2017.

Kurtulmus said tourism in Turkey would further improve in 2018 and the country aimed to reach a $50-billion income level and 50 million tourists by 2023.

*Ilker Girit contributed to this story from Istanbul.