The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of the Republic of Turkey recently held its first bilateral travel and tourism workshop in Dubai. The event was held at The Palace Hotel and attended by a number of senior officials such as Nihat Gul, deputy undersecretary and from within the UAE, Her Excellency the Turkish consul general in Dubai, Elif Comoglu Ulgen. The event witnessed several future strategies for joint cooperation and development of tourism movements between the two countries on both short-term and long-term runs.  The previous years have witnessed a marked increase in the number of tourists from the Gulf Cooperation Council Countries (GCC) to Turkey as indicated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism’s official statistics. Sedat Gonulluoglu, cultural and information attaché of the Turkish Culture & Information Office in Dubai, said: “Turkey has received 37.7 million tourists in 2012. This goes in line with the Republic’s goal to sustain an upward trend and attract 60 million tourists in year 2023 for 100th year of Republic of Turkey.” Source: Travel Daily