Turkish tourism has made a remarkable progress over the last two decades. Tourism is one of the largest and fastest growing sectors of Turkey. Since mid 1980s both the number of foreign arrivals and the tourist receipts have grown at a tremendous rate, though fluctuating at times due to the clearly known external factors beyond the control of the sector.

Successive records both in terms of number of arrivals and the tourism revenue have continued over the recent years. In the year 2002 the number of international arrivals in Turkey increased by 14 percent as against last year’s figure and reached a total of 13 million 246 thousand, representing a new record.

There is a consensus of opinion that Turkey has an enormous development potential; few countries offer such a great variety of natural resources, cultural values, and tourist attractions. Long term prospects indicate that Turkish tourism will continue to grow at a rate even higher than the world’s and the European average towards the year 2020. The research findings also confirm this view.