Published on : Tuesday, June 19, 2018
As per Culture and Tourism Ministry data, the number of foreign arrivals saw a 39 percent year-on-year increase in January.
Iran turned out to be the top tourist market for Turkey in January, with 154,296 people from Iran visiting Turkey. Georgia and Bulgaria followed Iran with 150,849 arrivals and 119,296 arrivals, respectively. Germany came thereafter, with 86,875 arrivals. Some 68,344 Russians visited Turkey in January with a 70.3 percent year-on-year increase, making Russia the fifth top tourism market for Turkey with a 4.68 percent share in total arrivals.
Meanwhile, hotel occupancy rates and room prices also saw a significant increase.
The Hotels Association of Turkey (TÜROB) said in a statement that Turkey’s hotel occupancy rates rose to 60.6 percent in January, with a 28.6 percent year-on-year increase. This was the highest increase in all European destinations, according to the data.
Average room rates also rose to 60.1 Euros in January, with a 10.4 percent year-on-year increase.
Bookings for this summer have also gone up.
Nearly 1 million foreigners visited Turkey in January last year, a 9.8 percent year-on-year decrease, despite an 81.5 percent year-on-year increase in Russian arrivals with the normalization in bilateral ties between Ankara and Moscow.
The overall number of foreign arrivals in Turkey rose to 32.4 million for the whole of 2017 with a 27.8 percent year-on-year increase, mainly thanks to the surge in Russian visitors.