The streets of Istanbul are swarming with foreign tourists flocking mostly for shopping and health tourism in a boost for the vital industry that is leaving the 2020-21 coronavirus slump behind despite fallout from the war in Ukraine.
Dominated by the Middle East and Gulf, foreign arrivals in Istanbul through April have surged 135% year-over-year to nearly 4 million, compared to about 4.4 million before the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Arrivals from Europe and the Americas are surging, but the industry still has ground to cover when it comes to market diversification, Turkey Hoteliers Union (TÜROB) Chair Müberra Eresin said.
The overall number of foreigners visiting Turkey in the first four months leaped 172.5% from a year ago to nearly 7.47 million, according to official data, compared to 2.74 million in 2021.
Eresin says the pandemic has mostly been left behind and the industry is marching toward its total recovery.
“2022 will be a much better year than 2021, and we will have seriously healed the wounds of the pandemic. 2023 will be even better,” she told Anadolu Agency (AA).
“In the following years, we hope that our tourism revenues will increase to very serious levels and that Istanbul will become one of the first three shining destinations in the world again.”
The number of foreign visitors soared 94.1% to 24.71 million and revenues doubled to almost $25 billion in 2021 when COVID-19 measures were eased compared to 2020.
Officials hope tourism this year could replicate or exceed the numbers from 2019 when some 52 million visitors brought in $34.5 billion in revenue.
