Nearly 12 mln tourists came to Turkey in first five months of 2018: Ministry

ISTANBUL

Turkey hosted 11.5 million foreign tourists in the first five months of 2018 with a 30.8 percent year-on-year increase, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has announced.

In a speech after a meeting of the Tourism Consultation Council in Istanbul late on June 21, Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmuş said “this was the highest five-month foreign tourist number Turkey has ever reached.”

“Tourist numbers are up over 30 percent, compared to the same period of 2017. This is an all-time high. By the end of 2018, we will hopefully break a new record by hosting 40 million tourists for $32 billion,” he said.

The ministry previously announced that Turkey hosted over 32 million tourists last year, earning $26.5 billion.

After having seen a decreasing demand from many Western and northern European markets, Turkey is back in fashion in the summer season, according to tour operators.

Turkey’s tourism revenue rose 31.3 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same period of 2017 and hit $4.43 billion, official data showed late in April.