Istanbul (TAN): A whopping 6.9 million foreign tourists visited Antalya, among Turkey’s most popular tourist destinations, till July 18 this year, an 16 per cent year-on-year increase.
According to a report in Hurriyet Daily News, around 86,000 tourists arrived in the city every day through Antalya and Gazipaşa airports. On July 14, a record 96,191 arrivals took place.
[ALSO READ: India -‘Clean Kerala Initiative’ to make nine tourist spots waste-free]
“We wake up to a new day with a fresh record. If this trend continues we will easily meet our target of hosting 16 million tourists set for this year,” Ülkay Atmaca, the head of the Professional Hotel Managers’ Association (POYD), told Anadolu Agency.
Atmaca said the goal was to create a sustainable tourism industry. “We need to receive 90,000 tourists every day throughout the year,” he said.
A large number of these tourists are from Europe and Russia.
“Last year we hosted 4.8 million Russian holidaymakers. We predict a 5 per cent to 10 per cent growth in the number of Russian tourists per year. We target to welcome more than 5 million Russian tourists,” the Hurriyet Daily News report quoted Erkan Yağcı, the president of the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers’ Association, as saying.
[ALSO READ: Here’s why you shouldn’t pet a wild horse]
Yağcı said at least 250,000 Russian police officers and their families are expected to visit Turkey starting August after Moscow removed a ban on its security forces from visiting certain countries.
