In the early 1980s the Turkish economy was liberalized and major reforms were put into implementation to this end. Restrictions on travelling abroad, such as currency limitation have been abolished. Business travel, both in the country and abroad has shown a rapid growth. The diversity of new products offered by the Turkish travel agencies stimulated the tourist demand, and the number of Turkish tourists going abroad has eventually increased. The number of the Turkish citizens increased from one million 795 thousand in 1980,to 2 million 917 thousand in 1990 and reached a record in the year 2000 taking the total to 5 million 284 thousand. Because of the economic situation this number decreased by 8 percent in 2001 making a total of 4 million 856 thousand.

Over the same period, tourist expenditure increased from 115 million US $ in 1980, to 520 thousand in 1990 and 1 billion 738 million in 2001. Expenditure per citizen has also increased reaching 358 US $ in 2001.

60.5 percent of the Turkish citizens going abroad traveled by air, 30.1 percent by land 0.6 percent by rail, 7.2 by sea respectively in the year 2001.

Popular destinations for Turkish citizens taking holidays abroad are well known cities of Europe and USA. Growing number of Turkish people take interest also in the Asia Pasific and other far away destinations. Turkish people are open to new ideas and flexible in decision making. Fashionable products are also tempting for them. They are particularly interested in city culture and sightseeing as well as shopping. There is also a large number of citizens travelling every year for pilgrimage visits.

Turkey’s outbound tourism and travel market is very likely to grow at a higher rate in the long term.