British holidaymakers are returning to Turkey and package holiday bookings to Turkey are currently up 84 percent year-on-year, Thomas Cook, one of the world's largest U.K.-based travel agencies, reported. "Package holiday bookings to Turkey are currently up 84 percent year-on-year while Egypt bookings have increased by 89 percent year-on-year," according to Thomas Cook's 2018 Holiday Report. "Turkey's growth is being driven by families who make up 61 percent of package bookings for this summer," the report said.

"Egypt is similarly popular with over half (51 percent) of overall bookings coming from families," the report added. "So far this summer, Turkey is the standout destination for British holidaymakers and we are seeing substantial growth in bookings compared to last year. With just one week to go until the summer holiday season officially begins, Egypt and Tunisia are also selling well with price and quality driving a return to these much-loved destinations," said Chris Mottershead, managing director for Thomas Cook, U.K.

Based on summer 2018 bookings to date, Spain comes out on top for the second year running.

"Turkey is at number three but is, in fact, currently outselling mainland Spain and the Canary Islands combined," according to the report.

The top five destinations for summer 2018 is listed as Spain (mainland Spain, the Balearics and the Canary Islands), Greece, Turkey, the U.S. and the Caribbean.Meanwhile, Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TÜRSAB) data revealed that some 2.5 million British tourists traveled to Turkey in 2015. That figure declined to 1.71 million in 2016 and to around 1,66 million in 2017.

Previously, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) said after two challenging years, the Turkish tourism sector was on the rise again with this remarkable increase in bookings for summer 2018. It predicted that bookings for Turkey may even equal that of 2015.

"It is no surprise that British tourists are returning to Turkey, as holidaymakers have a vacation worth their money in beautiful facilities," it had said in a statement.Moreover, foreign tour operators in the country such as Öger Tours and German tour operator FTI Group recently said there has been a high demand for early reservations in the first months of this year. Explaining that they were pleased with the current demand and hotel reservation figures, the operators said Turkey offers an unbeatable price-performance ratio.

They also said this positive trend has also continued in April and will likely continue in the future.

After seeing a sharp decline in the number of visitors to Turkey for tourism in 2016, a year that included a series of terror attacks and a failed coup attempt, the tourism industry saw a recovery in 2017.

It had experienced a drop in the number of tourists which began with a Daesh suicide bombing that killed 12 German citizens and injured 16 others in Istanbul's Sultanahmet area in 2016.

Turkey has been fighting not only against terrorism, but has also been subjected to an anti-Turkey smear campaign carried out by the Western media.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) has confirmed that the country's tourism revenue rose by more than 18.9 percent in 2017 as it hit $26.3 billion from $22.1 billion in the previous year.While the country hosted 36.8 million foreign tourists in 2014 and 36.3 million in 2015, the figure fell sharply to 25.3 million in 2016 but rose again to 32.4 million last year, according to the national statistical body.

ISTANBUL / DAILY SABAH WITH AA