ANKARA

Türkiye attracted 4.5 million foreign visitors in May, marking a 16.2% year-on-year rise, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said Friday.

The famed Turkish resort city of Antalya was the top draw for foreign visitors with a 33.6% share, welcoming 1.51 million foreigners last month.

Istanbul, Türkiye's largest city by population and a top tourist spot, came in a close second, hosting 1.5 million foreign visitors in May.

The Aegean province of Mugla and the northwestern province of Edirne, which borders both Bulgaria and Greece, followed them with 380,899 and 349,123 foreigners, respectively.

Russia topped the list of visitors by country, with 640,844, followed by Germany with 617,617, and Britain with 452,724.

Cumulative figure

In January-May, foreign tourist arrivals in Türkiye surged 23.7% from the prior year to exceed 14 million.

Russia made up the largest chunk of foreign visitors in the first five months of this year with 1.8 million arrivals, more than doubled compared to a year ago.

They were followed by Bulgarians with 1.06 million visitors, Britons with 982,267, and Iranians with 794,177 in the first six months of 2022.

Istanbul saw 44.7% of all foreign visitors, or 6.3 million in the five-month period. Antalya took second place with 22.40% or 3.1 million tourists. Edirne followed with a 10.5% share or 1.5 million visitors.

Türkiye eyes 60M foreign tourists

Türkiye aims to attract 60 million foreign tourists and generate $56 billion in revenues in 2023, according to the culture and tourism minister.

In 2022, some 44.6 million foreign tourists came to Türkiye, leaping 80.3% from a year earlier.

The country yielded $46.3 billion in tourism revenues last year, up from $38.9 billion in 2019, the pre-virus period, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).