ANKARA
Foreign tourist arrivals in the first eight months of 2024 increased by 8.3 percent from a year ago to 28.98 million, according to data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Including Turks residing abroad, 33.47 million holidaymakers visited the country in the January-July period, the ministry said on Aug. 23.
Russians constituted the largest group of visitors, accounting for 12.5 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals in the first eight months of 2024. From January to July, 3.6 million Russian nationals vacationed in Türkiye, up from 3.5 million in the same period of last year.
Germany ranked second on the list. The number of German tourists visiting Türkiye rose from 3.2 million in January-July 2023 to more than 3.5 million.
Türkiye welcomed 2.4 million British tourists in January-July, up from 2.06 million a year ago, while Iranian tourists increased by 40 percent annually to 1.75 million.
Despite the ongoing war, more than 525,000 Ukrainians visited Türkiye, marking a 15 percent rise from the first eight months of 2023.
Arrivals from Bulgaria were up 3 percent year-on-year to 1.62 million. Bulgarian nationals mostly travel to Türkiye, especially to cities near the border, for shopping purposes.
Tourist arrivals from Israel plunged more than 90 percent in January-July compared with the same period of 2023 to only 45,483, according to the ministry data.
The number of Chinese visitors surged 103 percent annually to 231,000, while there was an 8 percent year-on-year increase in American tourists to 772,000.
The 82 percent increase in Japanese tourists (66,000 people) was also significant.
Istanbul remained foreign visitors’ favored destination. The megacity welcomed 10.5 million international travelers, accounting for 36 percent of all tourist arrivals.
Antalya came second with 8.49 million or 29.3 percent share in total, followed by the northwestern province of Edirne at 2.83 million.
The western province of Muğla hosted 1.9 million foreign tourists in the first eight months of 2024.
In July alone, foreign tourist arrivals rose by 2.6 percent year-on-year to 7.3 million. The annual increases were 14 percent in May and 4.95 percent in June.
The representatives of the tourism industry link the weak international tourism activity to big sports events this summer, namely the Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympics.
Tourism is an important source of hard currency for the Turkish economy, helping the country finance its current account deficit.
Türkiye aims to draw 60 million tourists and generate $60 billion in tourism revenues this year.
