About 1.4 million Bulgarians visited Turkey in January-July, according to data from the country’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Hurriyet reports.
More than 23 million foreign tourists visited Turkey in the January-July period, a significant increase of 128% compared to the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
According to the Ministry, Germans are at the top of the list of foreign visitors. From January to July, 2.99 million German tourists visited Turkey, representing nearly 13% of all foreign tourist arrivals. During the same period last year, about 1.3 million Germans vacationed in the country.
Russians ranked second on the list with 2.2 million, up from 1.55 million Russian visitors a year ago.
British tourist numbers have risen sharply from just 85,000 in January-July 2021 to 1.81 million in the same period this year.
About 1.3 million Iranians also visited Turkey in January-July, according to the ministry’s data.
The number of Ukrainian tourists who visited the country decreased by nearly 67% to 374,000 people.
About 3.2 million Turks residing abroad also vacationed in the country in the first seven months of the year, according to the ministry’s data. “Including emigrants, the total number of visitors exceeded 26 million people,” the announcement said.
In July alone, the number of foreign tourists who arrived increased by 52.8% compared to the previous year and reached 6.7 million people.
Germans, Russians and the British were the most numerous visitors, followed by the Dutch. Last month, 266,000 Dutch tourists arrived in Turkey, up from 186,000 in July 2021.
However, the annual growth rate of foreign tourists seems to have lost some momentum. In June, 5 million foreign tourists visited Turkey, marking a 145% increase, while in May tourist arrivals increased by 314% year-on-year to 3.9 million people, and in April they increased by 226% year-on-year to 2.6 million people.
According to the data, Istanbul is the most popular city among foreign tourists. Between January and July, the city was visited by 8.5 million foreigners. In July alone, Istanbul welcomed 1.76 million visitors.
In second place is Antalya, a favorite place, especially for Russians on the Mediterranean coast. In the first seven months of 2022, nearly 6.4 million foreign tourists arrived in the resort town.
The northeastern province of Edirne has welcomed 2.5 million tourists. Over the past year, Edirne has attracted buyers from neighboring Bulgaria and Greece, which explains the province’s high place on the list.
Mugla, another major tourist destination, welcomed 1.48 million foreign tourists in the first seven months of the year.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy recently stated that the 2022 targets have been revised upwards from the previous 42 million tourists and $35 billion in revenue to 47 million tourists and $37 billion in total revenue.
novinite.com