Türkiye welcomed over 10 mln foreign tourists in 4 months

ISTANBUL

Foreign tourist arrivals increased by 11.75 percent in January-April from a year ago to 10.65 million, according to data from the Tourism and Culture Ministry.

In April alone, Türkiye welcomed 3.6 million foreign holidaymakers, marking an 8.7 percent increase compared with the same month of 2023.

Germans topped the list of foreign visitors in January-April. In the first four months of 2024, 1.12 million German nationals vacationed in Türkiye, up from 966,000 in the same period of 2023.

Russians constituted the second largest group at 1.08 million, which was below the 1.15 million Russian tourists Türkiye welcomed in the January-April period of last year.

Nearly 950,000 Iranians visited Türkiye in the first four months of 2024, up from 623,000 a year earlier, while the number of visitors from Bulgaria surged 7.5 percent year-on-year to 858,000. Bulgarians mostly travel to the Turkish cities on the border for shopping.

British tourists rose 24 percent to 659,000, the ministry data showed on May 24.

Istanbul was the most favorite destination among international travelers. In the first four months of the year, the megacity welcomed 5.24 million foreign tourists, which corresponded to 49 percent of all tourist arrivals.

The Mediterranean province of Antalya came second at 1.84 million, followed by the northwestern border province of Edirne at 1.23 million.

Foreign tourist arrivals at 3.6 million in April was the highest on a monthly basis recorded since the start of this year, but the annual increase in foreign tourist arrivals slowed from the previous two months.

In March, foreign tourist visits rose 15.7 percent to 2.7 million, while in February, the annual increase in the number of foreign visitors was 22.7 percent to 2.29 million. In the first month of this year, Türkiye welcomed a little more than 2 million foreigners, up 2 percent.

Türkiye aims to draw 60 million visitors and generate $60 billion in tourism revenues in 2024.

Last year, more than 49 million foreign tourists visited Türkiye, up 10.4 percent compared with 2022. Including Turks residing abroad, Türkiye welcomed 56.7 million holidaymakers.

Tourism revenues rose nearly 17 percent in 2023 from the previous year to $54.3 billion.

The latest data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) showed that in the first quarter of 2024, Türkiye generated $8.8 billion in tourism revenues, pointing to a 5.4 percent increase from the first quarter of 2023.