Number of tourists visiting Antalya decreases by 6 pct in first eight months of year

ANTALYA

CİHAN photo

The number of tourists visiting the Mediterranean resort of Antalya decreased by 6.1 percent in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period of 2014, according to a new report.

While around 8.4 million tourists visited the city in the first eight months of 2014, this figure decreased to 7.9 million in the same period this year, according to a report by the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers’ Association (AKTOB). 

The number of tourists visiting Antalya was 1.8 million in August a drop of 3.5 percent compared to the same month of 2014, the report showed. 

The highest decrease was seen in the number of Russian tourists, which decreased to 2.1 million in the first eight months of the year, a drop of 22 percent compared to the same period of the previous year. 

The number of tourists visiting the city from the Netherlands decreased by 4.2 percent, from Belgium by 6 percent and from Sweden by 7 percent in the first eight months of the year compared to the same period of 2014. The number of Iranian and Israeli tourists also dropped by 8 percent and 11 percent, respectively, according to the report. 

The number of German tourists visiting the city increased by 9.4 percent to over 2 million in the first eight months of the year from the same period of 2014. 

The number of British tourists visiting the city also increased by 4.4 percent to 333,000 in the January-August period of this year compared to the same period of 2014, according to the AKTOB report. 

There were also increases in the number of tourists from Kazakhstan and Poland, according to the report. 

The overall number of foreign people visiting Turkey decreased by 0.4 percent to 20.38 million in the first seven months of the year amid rising geopolitical risks and economic problems in Russia, according to the latest data from the Tourism Ministry.  

Turkey’s tourism income also decreased from $13.7 billion to $12.6 billion in the first half of the year compared to the same period of 2014.