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| The tourism has enjoyed rapid growth for most of the past two decades. The number of tourists who visited Turkey increased to 14 million from a mere 1.6 million during 1983-93, while the direct tourism revenues increased to $9.7 billion from $411 million during the same period. The sector reached new heights during the last few years. Turkish tourism revenues in 2005 realized as about $18.2 billion, an increase of 118% over the past three years. It ranks among the world’s most visited countries, with a record breaking 21.1 million in 2005 (20.4% growth) and 17.5 million in 2004 (24.9% growth). In 2005, the growth ratio of Israel and Croatia in terms of arrivals was 7%, and in Spain 6%. According to the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) the number of tourists that visited Turkey in 2006 was 19.8 millions a decrease of 6.2% compared to 2005. |
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