TEHRAN - Turkey saw 2.1 million tourist arrivals from Iran during the first ten months of the current year, its Culture and Tourism Ministry has said.

The number of Iranian nationals visiting Turkey rose three percent compared to the same period a year earlier.

According to available data, 280,951 Iranian nationals visited Turkey in October, making the Islamic Republic the fourth tourism source for its neighboring country in that month.

Turkey’s total number of foreign tourist arrivals increased by 11.6 percent in the January-October period from a year ago to 44.2 million, Hurriyet Daily News reported on Saturday.

Including Turkish nationals residing abroad, the number of total visitors reached 50.2 million in the first 10 months of the current year.

Russians constituted the largest group of foreign holidaymakers. From January to October, 5.8 million Russians visited Turkey, accounting for 13.2 percent of all foreign tourist arrivals. In the same period of 2022, 4.6 million Russians vacationed in the country.

Germans ranked second at 5.7 million. German tourist arrivals in the country increased by 8 percent from January to October last year.

Some 3.6 million Britons visited the country in the first 10 months, up from 3.2 million a year ago.

Data from the ministry showed that 2.4 million Bulgarian citizens visited Turkey. Bulgarians mostly travel to the provinces near the border, such as Edirne, for shopping purposes.

There was a 27.8 percent increase in the number of Ukrainians visiting Turkey as well.

Istanbul was foreigners’ most favorite city to visit. The megacity attracted 14.8 million foreign tourists, capturing a 33.4 percent share of all arrivals. Antalya, on the Mediterranean coast, ranked second with 14.1 million tourists, followed by the northwestern province of Edirne at 4 million. Moreover, some 1.4 million foreigners visited the province of İzmir on the Aegean coast.

Tourism revenues are one of the main sources of hard currency for Turkey, helping finance the current account deficit.

The country is on course to meet the tourism revenue target set for 2023 despite the challenges in its region, Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz said last week. “Our tourism revenues amounted to $42 billion in the first nine months of the year. We are moving toward meeting the target of generating $55.6 billion in tourism revenues this year as foreseen in the medium-term program,” Yılmaz said, speaking at a trade fair.

“Some geopolitical developments, which are beyond our control, inevitably have some negative effects. But despite those challenges, we will achieve our targets,” he said.

The government forecast in the medium-term program that Turkey’s tourism revenues will climb to $59.6 billion next year and increase further to $71.3 billion in 2026.

AFM