Turkey Tourism Up 16%

The number of foreigners visiting Turkey increased by 16.3% in May compared to the same month of last year, according to official data revealed on Thursday. Almost 2.89 million foreign visitors arrived in Turkey last month, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism said in a bulletin. The data showed that 21%—608,472—of foreign visitors were from Russia. Germans and Georgians followed with 10.2% (295,007) and 8.2% (235,462), respectively. In the first five months of the year, the number of foreigners visiting Turkey totaled nearly 8.8 million, marking an increase of 5.6% compared with the same period of last year, the ministry said. During the same period, almost 41% of foreigners arrived in Istanbul while the Mediterranean resort province of Antalya hosted 20.8% of visitors.