Data published by the Culture and Tourism Ministry recently confirmed that in the months from January to July this year Turkey welcomed just fewer than 25 million foreign visitors in total. This is a massive increase of 14.1% from the same time last year. In the month of July alone, the number of foreign visitors climbed to 6.6 million, which is up by 16.7% when compared to the same time last year.
Unsurprisingly, Istanbul is still the most favoured place welcoming approximately 8.4 million foreign tourists, which also equates to over a third of all visitors to Turkey. Ranking second and rapidly climbing is Antalya, the stunning Mediterranean resort city. In the first seven months of this year Antalya was host to over 7.85 million foreign visitors. Coming in third is Erdirne, which is located in the North West area of Turkey bordering Greece and Bulgaria. The number of foreign visitors in the first seven months of this year to Edirne was a very respectable 2.5 million.
There are three nationalities that stand out when looking at the visitor numbers from January to July. Taking the top spot on the list are visitors from Russia, with over 3.75 million Russian visitors choosing Turkey for their holidays. The number of Russian visitors equate to 15.2% of the total number of visitors to Turkey. Visitors from Germany took second spot with 2.7 million visitors, making up 10.8% of all foreign visitors. Bulgarians made up 5.85% of all foreign visitors holidaying in Turkey with 1.44 million people.
There are four preferred modes of transport that are used by foreign visitors to get to Turkey, these being air, road, sea, and train. Over 19 million foreign visitors travelled to Turkey from January to July by air, whilst 4.4 million visitors arrived by road. 660,000 visitors travelled to Turkey by sea and almost 12,000 visitors used trains to enter the country.
TUROB, the Hotel Association of Turkey reported that in the first seven months of this year the number of rooms booked by tourists was at its highest standing at 65.6%, which was up by 1.2% when compared to the previous year. Occupancy rates in hotels in Istanbul and Antalya stood at 82.8% and 64.1% respectively. The average revenue and daily rate charged for rooms in Istanbul and hotels in Antalya rose by 9.1% and 10.4% reaching just over 75 Euros and 49 Euros in the first seven months period from January to July of this year.