(TAN): International visitor numbers to Turkey went up 14.31% to 42.9 million during the first 11 months of 2019 compared with the same period of 2018, reports said.
The country reportedly hosted around 39.5 million foreign tourists in 2018, vis-à-vis 32.4 million in 2017.
According to reports, the Mediterranean resort city of Antalya was the top draw that welcomed 14.4 million holidaymakers between January and November 2019. Istanbul reportedly emerged as the second top choice for visitors – around 13.7 million international tourists visited the city. Istanbul and Antalya together accommodated over 65% of all the foreign visitors, as per reports.
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Edirne, a province located in the northwestern part of Turkey, attracted 4 million visitors to secure the third place among the most popular destinations for foreign tourists, reports said.
Russia topped the list among countries, with around 6.9 million visitors, followed by Germany with 4.8 million visitors, and the United Kingdom with 2.5 million tourists, as per reports. Tourist arrivals from Russia grew 17.42%, while that of Germany and United Kingdom went up 11.57% and 13.3%, respectively, according to reports.
Reports said Bulgaria and Iran clinched the fourth and fifth spots – while the former sent 2.48 million tourists, 1.97 million Iranians vacationed in Turkey between January to November 2019.
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In November alone, nearly 2.2 million foreigners visited Turkey, up 11.4% from the comparable period of earlier year, reports said.
According to reports, the country’s tourism revenues jumped 22% year-on-year to USD 14.03 billion in the third quarter of 2019, while it increased 16.15% to USD 26.5 billion in the first nine months of the year compared to the same period of previous year.
As per Turkish government’s new economic programme, revenue target for 2021 has been fixed at USD 40.1 billion while that of 2022 is USD 46.5 billion, reports said.
