Over half a million Ukrainians visit Turkey this year

531,000 Ukrainian tourists visited Turkey over eight months of this year. This is 19% up against the same period of the previous year.

Attache for culture and information in the Turkish Embassy in Ukraine Berat Yildiz has said about this during the opening of the 21st Ukrainian tourist forum in Kyiv.

“Over the first eight months of this year, 531,000 of Ukrainian tourists visited Turkey. This is very serious growth, by more than 19%, against the same period of the previous year,” he noted.

According to the diplomat, in 2008, before the beginning of the economic crisis, 735,000 Ukrainians visited Turkey with the tourism purposes. In 2009, this index fell by 23-24%. However, as Yildiz stressed, the number of Ukrainians visiting Turkey is expected to exceed the pre-crisis index this year. And if a positive trend preserves until the end of 2013, the number of Ukrainian tourists may reach 750,000,” he added.

Yildiz also stressed that a great number of Ukrainian tourists (about 54%) considers it is better to have a rest in Antalya. At the same time, according to him, with every year passing, the number of tourists grows who visit Istanbul. “Over eight months of this year, 160,000 Ukrainians visited this city, which is 28% up against the same period of the previous year,” the diplomat stresses.

As regards a flow of Turkish tourists to Ukraine, Yildiz noted that it grew by 50% to 117,000 persons in 2012 against 2011. “This figure is expected to rise to 150,000 in 2013,” he said.

In addition, the Embassy representative also stressed that Ukraine and Turkey actively cooperate in the sphere of culture. In this connection, he accentuated on a “very important event” - the Days of Ukrainian culture in Turkey, held for the first time this year. The diplomat also said that this September, about 1,500 schoolchildren from Turkey passed their holidays in Crimea with the aim of familiarizing with historical monuments and Ukrainian culture.

Adapted from ukrinform

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