Turkey bags top spot in holiday destinations

Turkey is the most favourable holiday destination for Britons, recent research has revealed. The bookings to Turkey have not dwindled despite the recession, and heavy bookings have been confirmed over the coming winter and the summer holidays in 2010.

Turkey, being a sunny destination, holds great appeal for the Britons. It guarantees a cheap holiday with glorious sights and is culturally renowned for its captivating historical sights. Also since Turkey lies outside the Eurozone, it offers an excellent currency exchange rate, good value for money, and this year seems to have registered an onslaught of bookings from UK holidaymakers.

The Turkish lire is said to be the third most popular holiday currency, the first two spots going to the Euro and the US dollar. There has been a 26% increase in the volume of Turkish currency. Also, on exchanging from pounds, lires bring in a much greater value than euros.

Turkey boasts premier resorts in Bodrum, Dalaman and Antalya. Bodrum revealed increase in bookings by a whopping 11% and Dalaman by 21%. The trend seems to be holding strong and is expected to continue well into next year.

New museums are in the pipeline to display Turkey’s cultural heritage and to attract more tourists to Istanbul. Efforts are being made by the Turkish government to make Istanbul, the European city of culture by 2010. This is expected to lead to even more increases in the number of tourists visiting Istanbul, besides boosting Turkey’s image internationally.