According to provisional data from the Turkish border control, the amount of foreigners arriving in Turkey in August this year has reached 4.6 million, a 46.35% more than in August 2016. The authorities rejoice over tourism recovery.
Different companies and tourist institutions have been informing throughout the whole year about the tourism recovery in countries like Turkey, Tunisia and Egypt. Last year, the terrorist attacks and tensions with Russia caused the biggest drop in the Turkish tourism sector in 22 years.
More specifically, Turkey has kept its growing rate in international tourist arrivals for the third month in a row with 40% - 43% in June, 46.3% in July and 46.3% in August - which means an improvement of more than 45% on tourist arrivals during this summer compared to last year.
In fact, according to provisional data obtained from the Directorate-General for Security, the amount of foreigners arriving in Turkey between January and August has reached 22 million, an increase of 26.41% over the same period of the previous year.
Russia Is Boosting the Tourism Recovery
The amount of Russian visitors arriving to Turkey - which fell by 88% during the first eight months of 2016 - has multiplied nine times in a year-on-year growth rate, from 336,000 to 3.3 million visitors this year.
On the other hand, Asian countries have also contributed to the recovery of Turkish tourism with a growth of 41.6% in Asian visitors led by the increase of over 90% in tourists arriving from Thailand, 74% from Indonesia and more than 28% in tourists coming from China.
However, European tourists, including Spanish travelers and Latin Americans are still skeptical and continue to reduce their visits to Turkey. The country received 4.4% fewer European tourists between January and August, 9.5% fewer Spanish tourists, and 11.5% fewer Latin American tourists.