Turkey sees 24% rise in foreigner visits in April

ANKARA

The number of foreigners visiting Turkey surged 24% on a yearly basis in April, the Culture and Tourism Ministry revealed on Friday.

Nearly 3.3 million foreign visitors entered the country last month, the ministry data showed.

Istanbul remained as the top tourist draw in the country, attracting 40% of all visitors -- more than 1.3 million.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya followed with 28% or over 930,000 foreign visitors in April.

The northwestern province of Edirne, which borders both Bulgaria and Greece, saw the third-highest number of foreigners with 373,527 last month.

Russians accounted for nearly 12% or more than 390,000 of the visitors, followed by Germans with 11.4% (376,059 visitors), and Bulgarians with 7.8% (256,072).

In the first four months of this year, the country welcomed 8.7 million foreign visitors, up 12.2% year-on-year, data showed.

Last year, some 39.5 million foreigners entered the country, up from 32.4 million in 2017.