In 2004, when the price of a small bottle of water was a million Turkish liras, the country decided to remove six zeros from Turkish currency. When the decision was implemented Jan. 3, 2005, a dollar equaled 1.34 liras.
The idea was to boost the value of the Turkish currency and improve its image. The lira gained some with the dollar's global drop in value, and in 2008 a dollar was selling for 1.14 liras. That year, Turkey hosted almost 31 million tourists, who spent an average of $820 each, for a total of $25.4 billion.