Gezi Protests not affected number of tourists to Turkey

Turkish Deputy PM Ali Babacan, concerning the United States Central Bank FED's recent desicion on decreasing asset purchase which has not been put into practice yet, said on Friday that the significant thing for the developing economies to do is to adopt this new economic setting, speaking at the opening of a forum titled "Istanbul: Regional Center, Global Actor" organized by Borsa Istanbul. "Turkey is not an exception; we follow all these developments closely. We have prepared ourselves to this situation by the reforms we have done recently," added Babacan. Indicating that the economic growth should be a qualified growth in today's world, Babacan said that the developing economies are growing with bigger rates than the developed economies. Thus the developing economies present real opportunities to the companies, underlined Babacan. Touching upon the development in Turkish economy, Deputy PM Babacan stated that Turkey has realized significant reforms in social, health, social security and banking systems. - "Number of tourists to Turkey has increased" In his speech, the Deputy PM referring to the Gezi Park protests said "The number of tourists visiting Istanbul has increased when compared to the same term last year". Stating that Turkey is among the first 6 countries attracting highest number of tourists, Babacan said that, "despite of the protests, the crowds on the streets and large scale of media coverage of the protests, the number of the tourists increased by 1 percent in June comparing to last year's June and increased by 10 percent in August."