TOUREXPI

The World's largest travel trade fair - ITB - opened its doors this morning in Berlin with a record 11,127 exhibitors and optimism about the future of the travel industry worldwide. Turkey was the honorary partner of the first time in its history.

After looking at popular searches via the site and bookings for July through to end of August, www.sunshine.co.uk has predicted that Marmaris in Turkey will be the busiest destination of the summer.

25 million bags went missing in 2009 in the world's airports, resulting in losses of about 2.5 billion US dollars to the airline industry, according to the data released by air transport electronics group SITA Thursday.

Eastern Europe continues to work hard to build its tourist industry. From Prague to Poland, plenty of changes are in the works.

Earlier this week, a 31-year-old man who stole private photos from Ma Bin, a CCTV host, after hacking into his laptop and threatened to expose the photos online, was sentenced to five years in prison for extortion.

A near 300-year-old Armenian church in the hometown of a famous Turkish-Armenian journalist will be restored, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported Wednesday.

THY official Faruk Cizmecioglu said that THY was pleased with the sponsorship agreement, and he expressed belief that the agreement would have a big contribution to the friendship between Turkey and Greece.

Tourexpi, the most influent travel and tourism information site in Turkey with 4 active languages, will award the best governor, the best mayor, the best tour operator, the best hotel manager in ITB 2010.