Tourism target met by Istanbul thanks to Western tourists

Istanbul is almost at its target of 15 million tourists per annum according to new data released. It is vital for the city, which although a firm favourite with Arab visitors, is now enjoying large increases in tourists from North America and multiple European countries that are both markets that Turkey has been encouraging as it settles down with the aim to diversify tourism markets.

In accordance with data provided by the Anadolu Agency, as of August 2019 Istanbul played host to 10 million tourists since the beginning of the year. When compared to the same time last year, the tourist numbers were up by an astonishing one million.

15 million tourism target in Istanbul

The number of tourists that have already visited Istanbul are showing that the 15 million target is achievable before the end of the year. One thing of particular note is the increasing numbers of tourists from North America and Europe in particular.

Tourists from major Western countries

Leading the way with regards to Western tourists is Germany with a 6.4% increase from January – August this year. Other notable increases were the Polish with a huge 46.6% increase of tourists in Istanbul, followed by Lithuania with 45.5% increases, and then Portugal with an increase of 41.5% when compared with last year. The number of U.S citizens travelling to Istanbul increased by 27.6%. Danish tourists were also up by 33.7%, Italians 31% and tourists from Spain have also increased by 28% as Istanbul reigns supreme.

Arrivals from Baltic and Balkan countries soar

The role of Baltic and Balkan countries has increased the total number of tourists visiting Istanbul by a huge manner according to the data.

In the first eight months there was a 4.6% rise in Albanians arriving in Turkey via Istanbul. As well as this, there was a rise of 15.5% of tourists from Bosnia-Herzegovina. Visitors from Bulgaria were up by 18.6%, Croatia 30%, Romania 12.2%, Northern Macedonia 8.95%, Greece 21.1% and tourists from Slovenia recorded an increase of 15.1% as Turkey sees increases across the country.

The number of tourists in Turkey from the Baltic countries also increased dramatically with visitors from Lithuania up by 45.5% whilst visitors from Latvia and Estonia increased by 10.6% and 13.2% respectively.