During the first eight months of 2018, Turkey reported the arrival of 27 million foreign tourists, following data released by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which represented an increase of 22.9% in comparison to the 21.9 million tourist arrivals recorded in the same period of 2017.
The noticeable rise in international tourism confirms the much-awaited recovery of the Turkish destination, since just in 2017 the country registered 32.4 million tourist arrivals compared to the 25.3 million of the previous year.
Istanbul, one of the most visited places in the country, saw the highest tourist activity, recording 8.87 million visitors, followed closely by the Mediterranean city of Antalya, with over 8.75 million.
Regarding the main issuing markets, Russia was leading the tourist influx until August, with 4.18 million, amounting to 15.5% of the foreign travelers. It was followed by Germany (2.97 million), United Kingdom (1.57 million); Iran (1.51 million), and Georgia (1.44 million).
It is worth noticing that both the British and German markets, main issuing markets to Spain, have registered drops in arrivals to Turkey until August, in regards to the same period of the previous year.
According to data from the Tourist Movement on Borders (released by FRONTUR), the British market registered a decrease of 2.9%, while the German market showed a 5.8% drop.