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Foreign arrivals in Türkiye’s metropolis and a top tourist destination hit a 10-year monthly high this July

Foreign arrivals in Türkiye’s metropolis and a top tourist destination hit a 10-year monthly high this July

Istanbul welcomed nearly 1.76 million foreign tourists last month, according to the provincial culture and tourism directorate data. The figure surged 56% compared to 1.1 million who arrived in the same month a year ago.

Some 1.7 million arrived by air and 28,827 by sea, the data showed. Compared to the same period last year, the number of arrivals by air shot up by over half, while those arriving by sea skyrocketed by nearly 900%.

Istanbul also welcomed nearly 40% of all foreign visitors in the country, or 8.5 million, in the first seven months of the year, the data showed.

Türkiye itself attracted over 23 million foreign visitors from January through July, surging 128% annually, said the official data, paving the way for $37 billion in tourism revenues sought by the government.

The arrivals have been mainly backed by Russian visitors who opted for Türkiye due to flight restrictions applied by Western countries after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The numbers of German and British visitors also rose strongly.

Istanbul hosted some one-third of the total visitors who visited the country in the first seven months of the year.

Germans contributed the lion’s share of visitors to Istanbul with 142,077, followed by Russia with 133,218, the U.S. with 97,355, and Iran with 94,708.