Nearly 2.5 million foreign tourists visit Istanbul in two months

ISTANBUL

Istanbul has attracted a total of 2.46 million foreign tourists in the first two months of 2024, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has said.

Foreign tourist arrivals in the city, which is also Türkiye’s financial and commercial center, increased by 8.1 percent compared to the January-February period of last year.

In February alone, the mega city drew some 1.3 million international visitors, which marked a robust 19.1 percent increase from a year earlier, the ministry said in a statement.

Istanbul accounted for 56 percent of tourist arrivals in Türkiye last month, when the country hosted 2.3 million foreign holidaymakers.

Russians topped the list of foreign tourist visitors in February. According to the data from the ministry, some 139,000 Russian nationals arrived in Istanbul. Last month a total of 203,000 Russians visited Türkiye.

Germans ranked second at 95,465 people arriving in Istanbul. In February, Türkiye welcomed 188,000 tourists from Germany.

The data showed that more than 75,000 Iranians vacationed in Istanbul last month.

Britons ranked fourth at 56,400, followed by French at 48,000.

Last month, 43,400 people from Saudi Arabia and 41,471 Americans also visited Istanbul.

Foreign tourist arrivals by air increased by 19.17 percent in February from the same month of 2023 to reach 1.3 million, the ministry said.

Their main point of entry was Istanbul Airport.

Last month, 904,642 foreign tourists passed through the airport, accounting for 70 percent of all arrivals by air.

Sabiha Gökçen Airport on the Asian side of the city welcomed 301,508 foreign visitors, 29.6 percent of arrivals.

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Istanbul by sea increased by 11.19 percent compared with February last year to 4,232 people.

Some 17.4 million foreign tourists visited Istanbul in 2023, when Türkiye drew a total of 49.2 million foreign visitors.

In February, the number of foreign tourists visiting the country rose by 22.7 percent compared with the same month of 2023.

In the first two months of 2024, foreign tourist arrivals in Türkiye surged 12 percent year-on-year to 4.34 million.

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

Including Turks residing abroad, 56.7 million visitors arrived in the country in 2023, while tourism revenues rose 16.9 percent to $54.3 billion.