Türkiye welcomes over 33 million foreign tourists in eight months

ANKARA

 Some 33.4 million foreign tourists have visited Türkiye in January-August, marking a 14 percent increase from the same period of 2022, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has said.

More than 3.3 million Turkish citizens residing abroad vacationed in the country in the first eight months of 2023, bringing the total number of visitors to 36.75 million.

Türkiye aims to welcome 60 million tourists and generate $56 billion in tourism revenues this year.

Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy earlier this month voiced confidence that Türkiye is on course to meet the tourism targets it set for 2023.

Tourism is one of the main sources of hard currency for Türkiye. In the first half of 2023, the country’s tourism revenues increased by 27 percent year-on-year to $21.7 billion, according to the latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

In August alone, foreign tourist arrivals were up 5.65 percent from the same month of last year to 6.7 million, showed the latest numbers from the Tourism Ministry.

Russians constituted the largest group of foreign holidaymakers. From January to August, 4.35 million Russian nationals visited Türkiye, accounting for 13 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals. In the same period of last year, a little more than 3 million Russians vacationed in Türkiye.

Germans ranked second in the list at 4.08 million, up from 3.85 million German tourists in January-August last year, followed by Britons at 2.65 million.

A record number of British tourists are expected to visit Türkiye this year, Jill Morris, the British ambassador to Türkiye, said earlier in September.

“We are expecting more than 4 million tourists from the U.K. to visit Türkiye this year,” she said, noting that more than 3 million Britons vacationed in Türkiye last year, surpassing the pre-pandemic levels.

Türkiye also hosted 1.8 million Bulgarians and 1.5 million Iranian visitors in the first eight months of 2023.

Istanbul was the most popular destination of foreign holidaymakers. From January to August, 11.5 million international travelers visited the mega city.

Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, came second at 10.2 million. The province is particularly popular with Russian tourists.

Hoteliers in the provinces say that with temperatures soaring above seasonal norms, the tourism season in Antalya has extended to mid-November this year and that the city is witnessing an influx of bookings hailing from Western European countries.