Tourism sees fall in Antalya, rise in Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

The number of foreign tourists visiting Antalya in January and February fell, while it increased in Istanbul. DHA photo

Antalya hosted fewer numbers of tourists this January and February, according to data from the Mediterranean Touristic Hotels and Investors Association (AKTOB). The number of foreign tourists visiting the city in this term decreased by 6.3 percent compared to the same term last year. The data shows that the number of visitors last year was 268,192 and fell to 251,260 this year.

The number of German tourists decreased by 12.8 percent and fell from 139,000 to 121,000, whereas the number of Russian tourists increased by 11.3 percent and reached 28,000.

The data also revealed that Dutch tourists increased by 4 percent as well as Norwegian, Finnish and Belgian tourists. There was also significant growth in Israeli and U.S. tourist numbers in the first two months of the year.

Meanwhile, according to data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry, the number of foreign tourists that visited Istanbul in the first two months of the year reached 1,149,741, representing an increase of 21.6 percent. Some 532,726 tourists arrived in the city in January, while 617,015 came in February. Forty-eight percent of the foreigners that arrived in Turkey in January visited Istanbul.

Istanbul received the highest number of tourists from Germany with 105,589. Germans were followed by Russians at 82,736, Britons at 49,197, French citizens at 45,289, Americans at 43,865, Indians at 42,183 and Ukrainians at 40,156.