Visitors to Turkey rise 25.6 pct in Oct   2007-11-15

In the first 10 months of the year, the number rose 18.3 percent to 21.1 million, the institute said.

Tourism, an important source of foreign earnings for Turkey which has a large current account deficit, rebounded this year after it was hit in 2006 by an outbreak of bird flu and a series of bomb attacks.

Visitor numbers have continued to show strong growth despite an escalation of separatist violence in Turkey and a threat from Ankara to carry out a cross-border operation into northern Iraq to deal with Kurdistan Workers Party guerrillas based there.