Antalya enjoying best tourism days post-COVID

Antalya beach

Turkey’s Mediterranean paradise has had its best summer since the coronavirus pandemic thanks to foreign tourists that continue to arrive in stunning Antalya. These arrivals are being spearheaded by European countries.

So far in 2022, the southern resort city of Antalya has seen 8.5 million tourists from overseas, almost surpassing the 9 million who arrived in the city during the entirety of 2021. In 2019, the Mediterranean gem saw 16 million visitors, which was dubbed by many as the best tourism season ever seen Antalya, before the plight of the pandemic caused a slump in foreign travel.


European tourists helping the rebound

Germany and the United Kingdom have been instrumental in the big rebound that has seen a huge surge of tourists flocking to Turkey from Europe. In addition to these European tourists, Russians have chosen Turkey for their holidays, after their invasion of Ukraine sparked tourism industry fears.

Erkhan Yagci, chairman of Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers and Investors Association (AKTOB), has explained that Antalya is witnessing a new boom this summer season.

He continued to say that Antalya is expecting to have levels seen only in 2019 before the pandemic. Yagci said that: “when we look from January to today, we have reached 90% to 95% of the 2019 figures during the high season. If it continues in this way, we can get closer to the 2019 figures.”


128% increase year-on-year

Between January and July, Turkey on the whole welcomed over 23 million tourists from overseas, official data has shown, which was a surge of 128% compared to previous years. This helped make $37 billion in revenue for the tourism sector, much needed by the Turkish government.


Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom boosting Turkey

The Russians have majorly backed Turkey with arrivals increasing due to the Western sanctions and flight restrictions. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine the sanctions have boosted Turkey’s Russian visitors, and similarly German and British visitor numbers rose compared to previous years.

Yagci continued his discussion by saying that: “The UK is on its way to becoming a source market. The British market has made a significant comeback. This year, we will have hosted nearly 1 million British guests in Antalya. This is extremely important.”

According to data supplied by the Culture and Tourism Ministry, between January and July, the top visiting country for tourists was Germany, with a total of 2.99 million people coming to Turkey. This was followed by Russian tourists, which totalled 2.2 million. In third was the Britons, with 1.8 million tourists flying from the United Kingdom.

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