A closer look at the international tourist arrivals in
Turkey illustrates that tourism development is reasonably
dependent on a small number of origin countries. In
1996 60.35 percent (5.2 million) of Turkey's arrivals
originated from OECD countries and 25.77 per cent (2.2
million) from East European (see Table 1). The largest
single tourist arrivals in 1996 were from Germany, which
accounted for 25 per cent of all arrivals. The top three
markets accounted for about 52 per cent of total international
arrivals to Turkey in 1996 (see Table 2).
It should be noted that the 2.2 million visitors (26 per
cent of all arrivals) from East European countries could
not be regarded as tourists in the real meaning of the
word. The vast majority of these visitors were &suitcase
traders' who aimed at to sell goods brought from their
own country in the streets. If these visitors were excluded,
the top two markets, Germany and the UK, would account
for 45 per cent of total arrivals to Turkey in 1996.