Antalya welcomes nearly 2 million tourists in four months

Foreign tourist arrivals by air in Antalya leaped 48 percent in the January-April period from a year ago, official data have shown.

From January to April, 1.8 million foreign holidaymakers arrived in the city, which is located on the Mediterranean coast.

That marked the all-time-high January-April figure ever, raising hopes that Antalya may welcome a record number of foreign tourists this year.

In January-April 2019, the number of foreign tourists arriving by air stood at 1.6 million but dropped to 509,000 in the same period of the following year.

In the first four months of 2021, tourist visits plunged to a little more than 445,000 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

But in 2022, Antalya fast recovered from the fallout of adverse effects of the pandemic as COVID-19-related travel restrictions were largely removed and the pandemic outlook improved in Türkiye and globally. In the first four months of last year, 1.22 million foreign tourists arrived in the popular holiday destination by air.

The city's tourism industry also made a good start to 2023, welcoming a record number of visitors in January, February and March.

Nearly 447,000 Germans arrived in Antalya between Jan. 1 and April 30, according to data from the provincial directorate of culture and tourism.

Russians constituted the second largest group of foreign holidaymakers, as 393,000 Russian nationals arrived in the city in the first four months this year.

In the same period, Antalya welcomed around 202,000 British visitors, followed by Dutch, Polish, Israelis, Lithuanians, Iranians, Belgians and Kazakhs.

In 2022, 13.4 million foreign holidaymakers arrived in Antalya by air, marking the second-highest figure on record after 2019's 15.6 million....