Some 47 million foreign tourists visit Türkiye

ANKARA

Foreign tourist arrivals in Türkiye increased by 10.8 percent in the January-November period of 2023 from a year ago to 46.7 million.

Including Turkish nationals residing abroad, the number of total visitors reached 52.7 million in the first 11 months of this year.

In November alone, 2.5 million foreign tourists visited the country, pointing to a 1 percent decline from the same month of 2022, according to the data the Tourism Ministry released on Dec. 22.

Russians constituted the largest group of foreign holidaymakers. From January to October, 6.08 million Russians visited Türkiye, accounting for 13 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals. In the same period of 2022, 4.95 million Russians vacationed in the country.

Germans ranked second at 5.96 million, with German tourist arrivals in Türkiye increasing by 9 percent from January to November last year.

Some 3.7 million Britons visited the country in the first 11 months, up from 3.3 million a year ago, the data also showed.

Türkiye also welcomed 2.9 million Iranian visitors in January-November, marking a 5 percent increase compared with the same period of 2022.

Despite the ongoing war, there was a 26.3 percent increase in the number of Ukrainian tourists to nearly 795,000. However, this was still less than more than 2 million Ukrainians visiting the country in the same period of 2021.

Istanbul was once again the most popular destination among foreign holidaymakers. In the first 11 months of 2023, more than 16 million tourists visited the mega city.

Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, attracted 14.5 million visitors, accounting for 31 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals.