Istanbul hosts over 9 million foreign tourists in first 10 months of 2017

ANKARA/ISTANBUL - Anadolu Agency

More than nine million foreign tourists visited Istanbul in the first 10 months of the current year, according to the Culture and Tourism and Ministry.

The ministry released a report on Nov. 15 revealing the statistics of foreigners who visited Istanbul between January and October.

The report is based on data collected from the Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen airports, as well as the Istanbul ports of Haydarpasa, Pendik, Tuzla, Zeytinburnu, Ambarlı and Karaköy.

Accordingly, Istanbul hosted 9,120,248 foreign tourists in the first 10 months of the year, up by 16 percent compared to the same period of 2016.

Germans topped the list with 862,453 people, followed by 734,739 Iranians. Some 505,487 Saudi tourists visited Istanbul in the first 10 months.

Russia stood fifth on the list with 407,771 tourists, with a 64.6 percent rise compared to the same period last year.

The number of Chinese tourists increased 35.3 percent with more than 170,000 people, which were nearly 128,000 in 2016.

The report also revealed that tourists from Arab countries made up nearly 25 percent of total foreigners—more than 2.27 million. It said the 25 percent increase in tourists from Arab countries was reported compared to the first 10 months of 2016.

The report also said that the Atatürk Airport hosted more than seven million foreign visitors, while the Sabiha Gökçen Airport received two million.