Foreign tourist visits to Turkey rose 6.88% y/y to 4.27mn people in September, the ministry of tourism and culture announced on Thursday.
Foreign tourist arrivals were up only 4.93% y/y in June and 0.48% y/y in July due to anti-government protests and the Ramadan. The growth rate accelerated to 10.64% y/y in August, in a sign of recovery.
The number of European tourists visiting Turkey declined 0.83% y/y to 2.3mn people in September after rising 2.89% y/y to 2.69mn in August.
In September, 1mn foreign tourists visited Istanbul, the largest city, representing the 23.61% of total foreign arrivals, while 1.67mn foreign tourists visited Antalya (39.06% in total) and 534,646 tourists visited Mugla (12.53% in total).
In the first nine months of the year, a total of 28.4mn foreign tourists visited Turkey, representing a 10.09% y/y increase.
Earlier this week, Osman Ayik, head of Turkish Hoteliers’ Association (TUROFED), told local daily Hurriyet that the number of foreign tourist arrivals is expected to increase to 38mn this year.
In the whole of 2012, 31.78mn foreign tourists visited the country, up from the previous year’s 31.46mn.
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