According to the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the total number of foreign tourists in the country in January-September 2022 almost doubled compared to the same period last year and exceeded 34,8 million.
Germany, Russia and the UK were the countries that sent the most visitors to Turkey for the first 9 months of 2022.
Germany is still the leader of the inbound flow to Turkey (4,5 million tourists, + 99,6% compared to the same period of 2021).
Russia is the second with 3,86 million tourists. However, we note that in comparison with the same period of 2021, when Russian airlines flew to Turkey without restrictions, the Russian tourist flow showed an increase of almost 12%.
Russia became the intermediate leader of the entry flow to Turkey in September 2022. Almost 861 thousand tourists came from Russia of the 5,47 million foreign guests who visited Turkey over the first month of autumn. The TOP-5 source markets in September also included Germany (677 thousand), Great Britain (almost 45 thousand), Bulgaria (349 thousand) and Iran (307 thousand).
Compared to September 2021, the number of Russian tourists in Turkey has decreased by almost 10%. At the beginning of autumn last year, there were 966 000 of them.
10,1 million people visited Istanbul between January and August. And here the Russians were on the leading position. Of the total number of foreign visitors coming to Istanbul in August 2022, the largest share is from the Russian Federation – 8,43%. The country is followed by Germany (7,49%), Iran (6,02%), Saudi Arabia (5,83%), United States (4,73%), Kuwait (3,86%) and United Kingdom (3,84%).
