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thwarting of attempts by the US to disconnect the country from internet access bandwidth. “Today, our talks were mostly focused on an agreement signed earlier by Iran, Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkey on the expansion of ICT ties. We made headway on how to implement the agreement,” Jahromi said. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of his meeting, the Iranian minister said that establishing a direct internet connection with a neighbouring country, namely with Turkey, would be helpful in neutralising threats to Iran's internet network. He said that unilateral sanctions imposed on Tehran by the US would not affect internet links between Iran and Turkey. During previous rounds of sanctions on Iran, the US used its weight to force regional internet providers to not cooperate with Iran. That resulted in a loss of internet connectivity and a general reduction of internet connection speeds in 2014.
9.1.8 Tourism sector news
In the first quarter of this year, 6.9mn foreign tourists visited Turkey, marking a 7% increase from the same period of 2018. In March alone, foreign tourist arrivals rose by 6.4% on an annual basis to 2.8mn.
The country’s tourism revenues, an important source of hard currency in addressing the current account deficit, showed a 4.6% rise to stand at $4.63bn in Q1.
Turkey’s tourism industry is benefiting from the substantially weaker Turkish lira which has lost more than 10% of its value against the US dollar and the euro so far this year, following its decline of around a third last year. As the local currency weakens the country becomes a more affordable holiday destination, particularly for Europeans.
However, one problem is that per capita spending by foreign visitors is not rising fast. According to the latest official data, foreign tourists’ per capita expenditure was $697 in the first quarter of this year versus $723 a year earlier. The Turkish government is aiming to increase the country’s tourism revenues to $34bn this year from last year’s $29bn.
Statistics office reported on May 7 that domestic tourism expenditures increased by 14% last year to stand at TRT40.3bn. The number of domestic trips with one or more overnight stays rose 1.7% on an annual basis to 78.5mn in 2018, it said, adding that domestic visitors made 633.7mn overnights stays last year.
98 TURKEY Country Report June 2019 www.intellinews.com