Turkey attracts more tourists than Spain: Minister

Turkey has lured more tourists than Spain for the first time ever, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

Turkey was the first nation in Europe and other nearby destinations to come up with the idea of a "safe tourism certificate" and implemented this certificate program very successfully, Ersoy told members of the parliament's budget and planning commission.

The latest data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry showed that between January and September nearly 17.6 million foreign tourists visited Turkey, up some 86 percent compared with the same period of 2020.

In September alone, foreign tourist arrivals in the country leaped more than 59 percent on an annual basis to 3.5 million people.

Ersoy recalled that the targets for tourism revenues and foreign tourist visits for 2021 had already been revised last month to $22 billion and 28 million people, respectively from the initial forecasts of $20 billion of revenues and 25 million visitors.

"Tourism activity in Turkey is going very well. Our tourism revenues may even reach $24 billion this year. We are working closely with tourism professionals, we are working hard," Ersoy said, noting that tourists' per capita spending, which stood at $630 in 2018, increased to $830 in the first nine months of 2021.

Last year, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit global travel and tourism industries, Turkey hosted 12.7 million foreign visitors, whereas in the previous year over 45 million international holidaymakers came to the country.

In 2020, Turkey's tourism revenues amounted to around $12.1 billion.

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