Turkey earned $16.85 billion from tourism in 2006, which corresponds to a 7.2 percent drop compared to the year before. Turkey's tourism revenues were $18.5 billion in 2005.

Turkey had long enjoyed a period of continuous growth in tourism revenues since 2002.

Based on previous performances the Culture and Tourism Ministry had set high targets, namely 26 million tourists and $20 billion in revenue, for 2006 but some unexpected incidents, including bird flu, tensions in the Middle East, the war between Lebanon and Israel and events like the World Cup have led to numbers below expectations.

The Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) released data on "departing visitors and arriving citizens, tourism expenditures and tourist profiles" for the last quarter of 2006.

The data showed that $12.55 billion of total revenue was earned from foreign visitors, whereas some $4.3 billion was gained from incoming citizens. Turkey's earnings from foreign tourists fell by 9.9 percent, down from $13.9 billion in 2005.

On the other hand, arriving citizens spent 1.7 percent more money compared to 2005. The number of foreign visitors decreased while the number of arriving citizens increased last year. The total number of visitors to Turkey fell by 4 percent, hitting 23.1 million.

That number was 24.1 million people in 2005. In the same period, the number of citizens arriving increased by 7.5 percent and reached 3.9 million people. The data indicates that money spent by tourists also decreased dramatically. Spending per capita fell to $728, down from $752.

One foreign tourist shelled out $651 on average while a citizen spent $1,110. The figures were $679 and $1,173 in 2005 respectively. Turkey's tourism expenditures also diminished.

Total amount spent by citizens while visiting abroad fell to $2.7 billion, decreasing 4.5 percent last year over the year before. In the last quarter of 2006, Turkey's tourism revenues fell by 12.9 percent, hitting $3.1 billion. That amount was $3.6 billion in 2005. (Source: Today's Zaman)