Russian tourists flow continues to hold the leading position in Turkey. In the first 6 months of 2019, 2.7 million of Russian tourists visited Turkey, which is almost equivalent to the total volume of tourists from the two European countries - Germany and the United Kingdom.
According to the Ministry of Tourism and Culture of Turkey, in January-June 2019, the total inbound tourist flow from abroad was 21.15 million (+ 11.81% against the same period of 2018), including 18.08 million foreign tourists (+ 13.2% in annual terms).
The share of tourist arrivals from the Russian Federation (14.99% of the total figure) was the most significant. In the first six months of 2019, 2,709,397 Russians visited Turkey. This is 13.91% more than in the same period of 2018. Compared with the same periods of the last two years, the cumulative share of Russian arrivals has increased (in 2018 by14.9%, in 2017 by 13.81%).
The TOP-5 source markets of Turkey for the first 6 months of 2019 includes Germany (1.8 million people, 9.97% of the total incoming flow, + 15.52% by 2018), Bulgaria (1.24 million, 6,84%, + 25.14%), Great Britain (1 million, 5.55%, + 16.92%) and Iran (882 thousand, 4.88%, - 22.76%).
The most visited regions in the first half of 2019 were Istanbul (6.78 million tourists, 37.49% of the total foreign flow) Antalya (5.34 million, 29.56%), Edirne (1.8 million, 10.03 %), Mugla (1.1 million, 6.08%) and Artvin (940 thousand, 5.2%).
In June 2019, the Russians topped the ranking of foreign visitors to Turkey. According to statistics, in June, 1,035,745 citizens of the Russian Federation visited Turkey. Compared with June 2018, the number of Russian arrivals increased by 4.62%.
At the same time, in comparison with the last two seasons, the market share of the Russian Federation for the first summer month decreased slightly. Nevertheless, in June, the Russian tourist flow to Turkey was two times more than the Germany one (588.5 thousand, 11.06%), almost three times more than the British (359 thousand, 6.76%), five times exceeded the Bulgarian (253 thousand) and Ukrainian (236 thousand).
By the way, unlike the Russian Federation, the tourist flows from a number of CIS countries showed a negative trend. Thus, the number of tourists from Ukraine in June decreased by almost 2%, from Belarus - by 9% (43.6 thousand), from Kazakhstan - by 2.73% (77.6 thousand).
In total, 5.3 million foreigners visited Turkey in June (+ 18.05%).
