Turkey welcomes 29 million tourists in 10 months

By Leyla Ataman Koyuncuoglu

ANTALYA, Turkey

More than 29 million foreign tourists visited Turkey between January and October, a 28 percent rise on the same period last year, the Tourism Ministry said Friday.

Figures showed tourists from 100 countries travelled to Turkey in the first 10 months of the year. The same period in 2016 saw 22.7 million visitors and a year earlier 36.2 million visited over 12 months.

More than six out of 10 tourists travelled to the Mediterranean coastline around Antalya, which saw 9.2 million arrivals, or Istanbul, which was visited by 9.1 million.

The largest group to visit were from Russia, with 4.5 million Russian tourists. Germans made up the next largest group of 3.3 million, followed by 2.1 million Iranians.

Osman Ayik, chairman of the Turkey Hoteliers Federation, predicted the total number would hit 32 million by the end of the year.

“The figures have pleased us,” he said. “Now we eye 2018. Early bookings for 2018 have started. 2018 will be much better than this year unless there is a cyclical problem.”

Ayik said hotels were hoping to see 40 million foreign tourists in Turkey next year.