Antalya welcomes record 14 million tourists in 9 months

Antalya, Türkiye's major holiday destination on the Mediterranean coast, has hosted a record 14 million tourists in the first nine months of 2024.

This marked an 8 percent increase from a year ago and an all-time high figure for the January-September period, according to a statement from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

As was the case last year, Russians were the largest group of foreign holidaymakers in the first 9 months of 2024.

From January to September, 3.25 million Russian nationals visited the city.

Germans ranked second on the list at 2.7 million, followed by tourists from the U.K. at 1.3 million.

Holidaymakers from Poland, Kazakhstan, Romania, the Netherlands, Ukraine and the Czech Republic and Slovakia constituted the other largest groups, vacationing in Antalya.

In September alone, the number of tourists visiting the city increased by 92,682 to reach 2.34 million people, said the ministry.

Last month, the highest number of visitors to Antalya came from the Russian Federation with 603,775, while Germany ranked second with 469,792 visitors and Poland ranked third with 195,000.

The ministry has not yet unveiled the nationwide tourism statistics for September.

The latest available data from the ministry showed that foreign tourist arrivals in Türkiye rose by 7 percent year-on-year to 35.8 million.

Istanbul had the largest share at 34 percent or 12.3 million, followed by Antalya at 30.8 percent or 11 million visitors.

Türkiye aims to welcome 60 million visitors and generate $60 billion in tourism revenues this year.