Turkey smashes 40 million tourist target for 2018 in 10 months

More than 40 million tourists coming from abroad visited Turkey in the January-October period, smashing the year-end target with two months to spare.

The Culture and Tourism Ministry announced Friday that nearly 35.6 million foreigners visited Turkey in the first 10 months of 2018, a 22.4 percent increase compared to some 29 million in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, more than five million Turkish citizens living abroad arrived in the first nine months of 2018, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), helping Turkey exceed the 40 million target for foreign visits set by the government.

Russia led the way with 5.26 million tourists in the first nine months of this year, recording a 16.09 percent year-on-year increase. It was followed by Germany with 4.16 million visitors and the U.K. with 2.16 million.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya was the top destination with 12 million foreign visitors, accounting for 33.7 percent of all foreign visitors.

Istanbul, Turkey’s world-famous touristic city was the second among all cities with 11.3 million foreign visitors.

Source: Daily Sabah