After tough times in tourism until a short while ago, Turkey has started enjoying great success in this sector again. In fact, it is reported that the number of tourists visiting Turkey went up to 35 million 500 thousand in the first 10 months of the current year.

Based on data provided by Culture and Tourism Ministry the number of foreigners visiting Turkey in January – October period of 2018 went up to 35 million 571 thousand 419 with an increase of 22.43 percent compared to the same period last year. Antalya was the city to host most tourists with 12 millions. On the other hand most of the arrivals were from the Russian Federation, with 5 million 724 thousand tourists. The number of Chinese tourists increased by 76 percent to 340 thousand 381.

The arrivals from India increased by 77 percent to 121 thousand some of whom came over to have weddings in Turkey. Arrivals from Iraq exceeded 1 million.

Russia ranked number one among countries who sent the highest number of tourists to Turkey in the same period with 5 million 724 thousand corresponding to 16.09 percent of the total, followed by Germany with 4 million 155 thousand corresponding to 11.68 percent and United Kingdom with 2 million 158 thousand corresponding to 6.07 percent.

Antalya and Istanbul hosted the highest number of tourists with 1million 359 bin 212 and 1 million 230 bin 70 respectively corresponding to 36.19 and 32.75 percent of the total.

The increase in arrivals from Latin American countries continued at full speed. In the first ten months, 219 thousand tourists from this region came to Turkey corresponding to an increase of 62 percent as compared to last year. Of this total figure 63,842 were from Argentina, 65,796 from Brazil and 46,516 were from Colombia.