Turkey has the fastest growing tourism industry in the Mediterranean basin, welcoming 19.1m foreign tourists over the first seven months in 2013, marking a 10.6% increase compared to last year’s figures for the same period.

According to the data issued by the Union of Mediterranean Tourist Hotels (AKTOB), Spain leads in the ranking of Mediterranean basin countries with 34m tourists between January and July, a 3.9% rise compared to last year. Turkey was the second most visited country.

Having witnessed a steady increase in foreign arrivals in recent years - with an annual average increase of 8.2% between 2007-2012 - Turkey is the 6th most popular tourist destination in the world according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s (UNWTO) Tourism Highlights 2012 Edition. The country attracted a total of 31.8m foreign visitors in 2012, achieving total revenues of $23.4bn.

Turkey also has the youngest population in Europe by median age, according to the latest Eurostat figures, with a median age of 29.7. This compares favourably with the WU-27 average age of 41.5. The share of the oldest segment of the population aged over 80 is 1.4% in Turkey compared to the EU’s 4.9%.