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"From the Turkish Daily News Online Edition;
Turkish tourism has not been hit by the global economic crisis as badly as its competitors in Europe, according to numbers released Wednesday.
Tourism grew 1.47 percent in Turkey while global tourism shrank 7 percent in the January-July period of 2009, the World Tourism Organization announced.
The Culture and Tourism Ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that the 7 percent shrink in world tourism and 8.4 percent shrink in European tourism during the January-July period of the year was due to the impacts of the global financial crisis.
"Tourism grew 1.47 percent in Turkey in the same period with the number of tourists rising up to 21.8 million. Among the 10 most popular tourism destinations in the world, Turkey is the only country where the total number of tourists increased," the statement read. "The current situation is a source of happiness and hope for the coming tourism season. The importance of the tourism sector at a time of economic crisis is crucial, and it's one of the major actors to survive the crisis," it added.
