Turkey aims for 40 million mark

Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism are considering ways of pushing the number of overseas visitors to the country up towards the 40 million mark.

Minister Ertugrul Gunay says that additional parts of the country must be promoted as tourism destinations and that new markets must be opened up in countries such as the US and Japan in order to increase the volume of holidaymakers that choose to come to Turkey, reports the Turkish Daily News.

Mr Gunay told the business daily Referans: "We had hit 23 million tourists in 2007 and we would like toattract about 40 million.

"My opinion is that major tourism markets like the United States, Japan, and China will become very significant ones for Turkey in the future since these markets have newly opened up to the world."

Mersin and Mardin have been earmarked as potential areas of expansion. Mersin, with its lively port and notable cuisine, dates from as recently as the 19th century, but stands at an ancient site where settlements began in the Neolithic period.

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