Over 2.7 million tourists visit Istanbul

ISTANBUL

More than 2.7 million foreign tourists visited Istanbul in the first six months of 2021, the provincial directorate of culture and tourism has said.

In June alone, the number of foreign arrivals amounted to 685,000 people and this was the highest figure in the past 16 months.

From January to June, nearly 682,000 visitors arrived by air and another 3,200 travelers by sea, according to official data.

Istanbul Airport welcomed 456,000 international holidaymakers, while 224,000 foreign visitors went through Sabiha Gökçen, the second largest airport in the megacity.

German nationals topped the list of foreign tourists at 71,000, accounting for a little more than 10 percent of all arrivals.

Iranians came second at 54,000, followed by U.S. citizens at 39,500.

Istanbul also welcomed 31,000 Ukrainians (4.6 percent of total visitors), around 29,600 Iraqis (4.3 percent), 28,000 French (4.09 percent) and 21,000 Russian (3.07 percent) tourists.

Nearly 15,000 Israeli holidaymakers arrived in the city in the first half of the year.

According to the official figures, people from 190 countries visited the city in June.

There was one visitor each from San Marino, Macao, Monaco, the Vatican, Brunei, the Solomon Islands, Swaziland and Tuvalu.

In the first half of this year, the number of foreign arrivals in Turkey surged 27.1 year-on-year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said last week.

Nearly 5.8 million foreign nationals visited the country between January and June, an increase from 4.5 million in the same period last year.

In June alone, more than 2 million tourists visited Turkey, marking a significant increase from only 215,000 arrivals from a year ago.