Tourism industry upbeat as it targets new records in 2026

ANTALYA

The Turkish tourism industry is confident that the targets set for 2026 could be reached despite geopolitical hurdles.

Türkiye welcomed 64 million tourists in 2025, generating $65.2 billion in revenue, marking a 3 percent increase in arrivals and a 7 percent rise in income compared to the previous year.

Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has set a target of $68 billion for 2026.

Türkiye is “a truly powerful tourism country in the world,” said Erkan Yağcı, head of the Turkish Hoteliers Federation (TÜROFED).

“2025 was a year when we achieved the highest tourism figures,” he said, as Türkiye became the fourth-most-visited country in the world, according to the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).

“While we’re aware of the geopolitical challenges facing our region, we kicked off 2026 with hope, and we believe we’ll close out this year with figures slightly above last year’s,” he said.

“The Turkish tourism sector is a crisis-resistant business, and as long as we do our best, we will once again achieve record revenue and tourist counts,” Yağcı stressed.

Yağcı said the goal is to “spread tourism over 12 months and across all regions” to ensure tourists also visit the winter and off-season in addition to the summer.

“Efforts are underway in different areas like sports and conference tourism, as we aim to boost the number of tourists in winter as well,” he said, noting that conference tourism is more prominent in the winter and spring seasons, while the resort city of Antalya in the country’s southwest hosts numerous national and international events every year.

He mentioned that this year the city will hold the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2026 on April 17–19, the 77th International Astronautical Congress on Oct. 5–9 and the U.N. climate change conference COP31 on Nov. 9–20.

“It is significant that such prestigious events will be held in the Turkish tourism capital,” he said.

“Antalya is also one of the top 10 cities in the world in terms of tourist capacity,” he added.

Official data released last week showed that Antalya recorded its highest-ever January visitor numbers.

The city welcomed 234,037 tourists by air, a 1.3 percent increase compared to the same month last year.

Of the total arrivals this January, 166,000 were foreign tourists, while 67,000 were Turkish citizens residing abroad.

Russia remained Antalya’s leading source market, sending more than 47,000 visitors, a rise of over 9 percent and accounting for 28 percent of all foreign arrivals. Germany ranked second with nearly 38,000 visitors, though numbers fell by 3.5 percent, representing 22 percent of the total.