Turkey to boost number of Asian tourists in 2018, Culture and Tourism Minister Kurtulmuş says

Turkey will aim to attract more tourists and business from the far east in the next year, Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said Friday.

Speaking to reporters in Hagia Sophia Museum in Istanbul, Kurtulmuş said that Turkey's new tourism strategy will focus on boosting tourism and business with Asian countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, India and others.

He noted that Turkey is planning to diversify and expand its tourism market.

"We want to take advantage of China's tourism potential" Kurtulmuş said, noting that the majority of tourists visiting Turkey comes from the Middle East and Europe.

In this regard, the culture and tourism ministry will work on various campaigns and strategies, the minister added.

In 2017 alone, 3.5 million Arab tourists are expected to visit Turkey.

In the first seven months of 2017, 2,527,628 Russian tourists visited the country, followed by 1,927,360 German and 1,338,295 Georgian tourists.