Foreign tourist arrivals see 2 percent boost in January

More than 2 million foreign tourists visited Türkiye in the first month of 2024, marking a 2.1 percent increase from a year ago, the numbers from the Tourism and Culture Ministry have shown.

As was the case in previous months, Russians constituted the largest group of foreign holidaymakers. Last month, around 231,000 Russian nationals visited Türkiye, down from 279,000 in January 2023.

Iranians claimed the second spot with 211,000 visitors, pointing to a steep 87 percent increase from a year ago.

The number of Bulgarians visiting Türkiye declined by 3 percent in January. Bulgarians mostly visit the northwestern Turkish province of Edirne, for shopping purposes.

Tourist arrivals from Germany increased by 2 percent year-on-year to around 143,000.

Istanbul was the favorite destination of foreign holidaymakers. The megacity attracted 1.2 million visitors last month, accounting for 57 percent of all tourist arrivals.

ntalya, another major tourist hotspot on the Mediterranean coast, hosted 178,000 foreign tourists, while Edirne's share in total foreign tourist visits was 11.6 percent or 238,000 people.

Tourism is an important source of hard currency for Türkiye.

Last year, Türkiye welcomed 49.2 million foreign holidaymakers, up 10.4 percent from 2022.

Including Turkish citizens residing abroad, nearly 57 million people visited the country in 2023.

The country's tourism revenues amounted to $54.3 billion last year, rising nearly 17 percent from 2022.

Türkiye aims to attract 60 million visitors and generate $60 billion in tourism revenues in 2024.