Last Updated on August 10, 2023 by Aydoğan Aknar
Antalya, Turkey’s popular holiday destination, has already welcomed over 1 million foreign tourists, as reported by “Hurriyet Daily News.”
The province is aiming to host 17 million foreign tourists this year, and the governor Ersin Yazıcı confirmed that Russians make up the largest group of visitors, accounting for 30 per cent of all visitors. Germans came in second at 24 percent, followed by Britons in third place. Other significant groups of visitors include Iranians, Poles, Israelis, Danish, Ukrainians, and Dutch.
The governor expressed optimism about the upcoming tourism season, with expectations of more tourists from Europe and Israel. The local hotel industry is also hopeful, with many expecting high demand. Antalya Airport currently welcomes more than 100 airplanes each day from foreign countries.
Turkey is targeting to host 60 million foreign tourists in 2023, last year saw an increase in tourist arrivals, with nearly 45 million foreigners visiting the country, up from 24.7 million in 2021. In 2022, Germans topped the list of foreign tourist arrivals at 5.7 million, while Russians accounted for 11.7 per cent, or 5.2 million, of all foreign tourist arrivals. Britons ranked third with 3.4 million arrivals.
With around 7 million Russians expected to visit Turkey this year, there will be 171 flights per day from Russia to Turkey during this summer season, according to earlier reports in local media.
