First-time visitors to Istanbul on the rise

ISTANBUL

Istanbul is currently enjoying one of the business periods in tourist season this year and first-time visitors to the city are on the rise, says Müberra Eresin, the chair of the Hotel Association of Türkiye (TÜROB).

“Crowds around the Sultanahmet area are an indication of this. The Culture and Tourism Ministry, the Tourism Promotion and Development Agency (TGA), non-governmental organizations, we are all working to keep this momentum alive until the end of the year,” Eresin said, adding that diverse tourist groups are visiting the city.

“People arriving from Europe, the U.S. and Latin American countries with cultural tours, cruise travelers visit first the Historical Peninsula. September and October are the high season for cultural tourism in the world and this is the period people with higher income travel,” Eresin said.

The latest official data also confirms that Istanbul is taking its share from the increasing cultural tourism activity, which started to recover from the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

There are long queues at the entrances of historical tourist attractions, such as Hagia Sophia, the Topkapı Palace and the Basilica Cistern.

In the first eight months of 2022, more than 10 million foreign tourists visited Istanbul, according to the provincial directorate of culture and tourism.

In the same period in 2021 and 2020, the city with a population of over 15 million, welcomed 4.8 million and 3.1 million foreign holidaymakers, respectively.

In August alone, the number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul leaped more than 66 percent on an annual basis to 1.6 million. Russians topped the list of foreign visitors. Germans and Iranians ranked second and third, respectively. Saudis and U.S nationals were also among the top five visitors in August.