Over 2,6 million Russians visited Turkey in the first half of 2023

In Turkey, for January-June 2023, 2 614 029 visits from the Russian Federation were recorded. This is only 3,5% less than at the same time in pre-COVID 2019, and 79% more than in the first half of 2022. However, the main growth is due to the short transit trips to Istanbul: Antalya's share in total trips has fallen to 50%.

The structure of Russian arrivals in Turkey has changed: the increase in the tourist flow is now mainly due to Istanbul, and not Antalya.

For the first six months of 2023, 1 309 267 Russians arrived in Antalya, 124 338 in Mugla (Aegean coast), and 20 837 in Izmir.

Of the 2 709 397 visits of Russians to Turkey in January-June, only 50% are to the beach resorts of Antalya, while in 2019 the share of trips to Antalya during this period was at the level of 78%.

In the first six months of 2023, 1 007 837 tourists from Russia arrived in Istanbul. This is almost three times (+195%) more than in the first half of pre-pandemic 2019 and almost twice as much (+91%) than last year.

It is estimated that about 70% of such large tourist flow to Istanbul are short transit stops of Russians in the city on their way to the third countries.

June, taken separately, shows the same trends as the statistics for the six months. In total, 819 844 visits from Russia were recorded in Turkey in June 2023, which is 36% more than in June 2022 (602 015), but 20,8% less than in June 2019 (1 035 745).

The June tourist flow from Russia to the resorts of the province of Antalya amounted to 525 530 tourists, which is 25,76% more than in June 2022, which was problematic due to air sanctions (417 874). The decrease from the indicators of June of the record year 2019 (865 thousand) is -39%.