Foreign arrivals in Turkey jumps 38%

Sailing in Turkey

Official data has shown that the number of foreign visitors arriving to Turkey has increased from the year previous by 38.4% in October. This shows a sustained recovery.


October’s figures

In October alone, around 4.8 million tourists arrived in the country, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry. This is compared to the 3.47 million which arrived in October 2021, and the 1.74 million who travelled to Turkey in October 2020.

There has been an influx of visitors from Russia, but in addition, the rebound of visitors has been driven by a major leap in demand from people travelling from Europe – this has been headed by Germany and the United Kingdom.


Topping nation of Russia in October stats

Following the invasion of Ukraine by Russian forces, citizens of Russia have been hit with flight restrictions applied to them by Western countries. They topped the list for nations choosing Turkey in October with a total of 467,814 visitors to the country. This was followed according to the data by Germany with 746,192 visitors, the United Kingdom with 388,017 arrivals to Turkey, Bulgaria with an additional 326,429 visitors and Iran with 185,945 people.


The first ten months of the year showed promise

In the initial 10 months of 2022, the number of foreign visitors climbed by 88.1%, reaching 39.61 million arrivals, which was on track to match the pre-pandemic levels the country saw in 2019.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry said that the figure for the same ten months stood at 21.1 million in 2021, 11.2 million visitors in 2020 and 40.7 million travellers in 2019.


Top provinces in Turkey

Turkey’s most famous province, with the largest population of provinces in Turkey, Istanbul, was the top destination for foreign visitors. The province welcomed 13.4 million tourists within the first ten months of 2022.

This was followed by Antalya, the Mediterranean resort city, who welcomed 12.2 million visitors. After this was Edirne. This province in the northwest, bordering both Bulgaria and Greece, welcomed almost 4 million tourists, according to the data.


Raising the targets

The government increased its end of year tourism targets for the second time this year at the end of October. It is now expecting 50 million tourists and $44 billion in revenue. This is an increase from 47 million in foreign visitors and $37 billion in revenue which was set at the beginning of July, and even more of an increase from the 45 million arrivals and $35 billion in revenue from tourism that was initially set at the beginning of the year.

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