By Humeyra Pamuk and Selcuk Gokoluk - Reuters

ANKARA - The number of foreign tourists visiting Turkey jumped 20.4 percent year on year in 2005, data showed yesterday, but sector experts said growth this year would be more moderate.

The number of foreign tourists — who provide a vital source of foreign currency for Turkey as it recovers from its 2001 financial crisis — rose to 21.1 million, the Turkey Statistics Institute said.

But tourism officials say the last two years’ growth has been a one-off and this year’s growth will be dented by bird flu — which has killed four people in Turkey this year — and the soccer World Cup in Germany.

“The Turkish tourism sector performed extraordinarily in the two years 2004 and 2005... But in 2006, we won’t see leaps like those we saw in those two years,” Tourism Investors’ Association head Oktay Varlier told Reuters.

Turkey hopes to generate $18 billion in tourism revenues for the whole of 2005 and they already stood at $17.6 billion for the first 11 months of the year.

The economies of Germany and Britain — two major markets for Turkish tourism — are expected to pick up this year, but experts in Turkey say that will not be enough to maintain the growth levels of last year, particularly with competition from the World Cup. “This summer there is the World Cup in Germany and it is obvious that crowds will go there,” Varlier added. “On top of all this, bird flu is like rubbing salt into the wounds. There have not been cancellations but there is a slowdown in bookings.”

The leading epidemiologist in Russia — the second most important market for Turkey after Germany — caused jitters in the industry recently when he urged Russians to avoid Turkey because of the outbreak.