Istanbul visited by one of every two tourists

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

Istanbul was visited by 47.8 percent of all tourists in the first three months in 2012. AA photo

One of every two tourists visiting Turkey comes to Istanbul, according to data from the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate. The data shows that the number of tourists visiting the city was 451,662 in January, 494,124 in February and 659,826 in March, for a total of 1,605,612, for an increase of 17.5 percent compared to the same period last year.

Turkey overall was visited by 981,611 tourists in January and 997,571 tourists in February. Of these, 47.8 percent came to Istanbul.

Most of these travelers (1,593,292) came to Istanbul via air transport, but 12,320 came sea by sea. When compared to the first three months of last year, airline arrivals have increased 18 percent this year, and sea arrivals have increased 13 percent.

As for the nationalities of the visitors, Germans rank first, accounting for 10.4 percent of all foreign tourists visiting Istanbul. Germany is followed in order by Russia, Iran, the U.K., the U.S., France, Italy, the Netherlands, Libya, Ukraine, Japan, Azerbaijan, Iraq, South Korea and Kazakhstan for most visitors to the city. In the first three months of the year, exactly one person from each of Burma, the Faroe Islands, Belize, the Gilbert Islands, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, the British Virgin Islands and Zaire visited Istanbul.