Foreign tourist arrivals into Turkey soar nearly 50 pct in July

ANKARA

AFP photo

The number of foreigners visiting Turkey rose more than 46 percent year-on-year in July, with a skyrocketing rise in the number of arrivals, the Tourism Ministry revealed on Aug. 25.

The data showed that more than five million foreign visitors entered the country over the course of the month.      

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya and scenic Istanbul saw the highest number of visitors, nearly 1.8 million and over 1.3 million, respectively.

In July, a total of 835,525 Russians visited Turkey with a 1.648 percent increase compared to the same month of 2016.

In the first seven months of the year, the number of foreigners visiting Turkey totaled over 17.3 million, up almost 22 percent compared to the same period last year, the ministry said.

In this period, more than 2.5 million Russians visited Turkey with a 99.1 percent year-on-year increase.

Russians made up almost 15 percent of foreign visitors, followed by Germans at around 11 percent, and Georgian citizens at nearly 8 percent in the first seven months of the year.

In the first seven months of the year, a total of 7.1 million tourists visited Turkey from Europe, with a 7.1 percent year-on-year increase.