More tourists come to Istanbul

ISTANBUL - Anatolia News Agency

A tourist couple enjoys taking a photograph on Istanbul’s historic peninsula.

The number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul was up 16 percent in the first 11 months of this year, official data showed.

The number of foreign visitors increased to 7.5 million in the period of January to November 2011 from 6.5 million over the same period last year.

Mostly Germans, Russians and Americans visited Istanbul in 2011, and the number of visitors from Arab countries grew the fastest with a 28.5 percent increase.

Visitors from Saudi Arabia increased the most with 71.3 percent, which was followed by Iraq with an increase of 64.7 percent, Kuwait, 61.5 percent and Lebanon, 40.7 percent.