THE EFFECT OF TOUR？SM REVENUES ON CURRENT ACCOUNT BALANCE ？N TURKEY

In accordance with the economic liberalization movements arising in the 1980s all over the world, Turkey switched to a new era in its commercial relationships with other countries as of the decisions on 24th January, when it adopted a strategy for outward-oriented growth. As a result of the increase in world trade volume, the import of such countries as Turkey dependent on technology, energy, raw material and intermediate output especially in production has increased gradually and these countries are faced with foreign trade deficits. Turkey’s foreign trade deficit concomitant with production has raised the topic of current account deficit. On the other hand, the developments in world tourism concomitant with economic liberalization have had positive effects on Turkish economy. Today travel and tourism has come to be one of the sectors whereby the highest amount of foreign currency is obtained across the world. In general, the developing countries which have a current account deficit under the negative effect of the item of foreign trade make use of the balances of service to close this deficit and use the balance of foreign tourism having a surplus in budget within this balance. This study is intended to reveal the importance of tourism sector in the balance of current accounts in Turkey. Towards this end, there is a brief mention of the balance of current accounts and its importance in the first chapter of the study in which historical development of the balance of current accounts and the process of current account deficit will be analysed through various measurements and graphics. In the second chapter, a mention is made of the importance of tourism sector in the economies of countries on the whole and its revenue-generating contributions; development of the sector in Turkey is dealt with in the light of the numbers of tourists, revenues of tourism, etc. In the third chapter, there is a place for the effects of tourism sector on current accounts in Turkey and the effects in questions are again dealt with through various tables and graphics. The study is concluded with the conclusion part containing a general evaluation and recommendations