1.8 mln foreigners visit Turkey in January

ANKARA-Anadolu Agency

Alamy Photo

The number of foreigners visiting Turkey jumped 16.11 percent on a yearly basis in January, the country’s Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Feb. 24.

Almost 1.8 million foreign visitors entered the country last month, the ministry data showed.

Istanbul continued to be Turkey’s top tourist draw, attracting nearly 57 percent of all visitors - around 1 million.

Edirne, in northwestern Turkey, which borders both Bulgaria and Greece, saw the second-highest number of foreigners, with 222,494 in the month.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya followed them with 8.04 percent or over 143,679 foreign visitors last month.

Bulgarians accounted for over 9 percent or nearly 162,200 of the visitors, followed by Georgians with some 7.4 percent (132,674 visitors), and Russians with 7.3 percent (130,608).

Last year, more than 45 million foreigners entered the country, up from nearly 39.5 million in 2018.