Over 1 million Russian tourists visit Turkey this year

More than one million Russians arrived in Turkey in the first four months of 2024, a 5% increase from January - April 2023, according to Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism.

Total foreign tourist arrivals grew by almost 12% year-on-year to 10.6 million in this period. German tourists were leading by the number of arrivals, which increased by 16% from the previous year to 1.1 million in January - April 2024.

Russian tourists take second place, with almost 1.08 million arrivals in January - April of this year. In April, Russian tourist arrivals in Turkey were up 4% year-on-year to approximately 396,000.

Iranian tourists are ranked the third, with their number also approaching one million at 950,000, which by 52% more than in the first four months of 2023. Bulgarian and British tourists also made it to the Top Five in Turkey in January- April 2024.

In the first four months of this year, Istanbul hosted a majority of foreign tourists, totally 5.2 million, almost 50% of all foreign tourist arrivals. Antalya is ranked second with 1.84 million arrivals.