Türkiye welcomes more than 4 million foreign tourists in January-February

ISTANBUL

Türkiye welcomed 4.37 million foreign tourists in January–February 2026, marking a 0.7 percent increase from the same period last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on March 23.

Iranians were the largest group of visitors with 430,369 arrivals, though this represented a 7.2 percent decline. Russians followed with 392,000 tourists, up 5.6 percent, while arrivals from Germany rose 2.3 percent to 337,592.

Visitors from Bulgaria and Georgia increased by 4.4 percent and 8.3 percent to 330,073 and 182,064, respectively. The number of tourists from the U.K. fell 7.1 percent to around 163,000 in the January–February period.

Arrivals from Kuwait dropped nearly 37 percent to just over 19,000, while visitors from Qatar declined 32 percent to 4,438. The United Arab Emirates also saw a 26.3 percent decrease, with 8,281 arrivals. In contrast, visitors from China surged 52 percent to 79,134, and arrivals from the United States rose 6.2 percent to 122,654, according to TÜİK data.

In February alone, Türkiye hosted 2.13 million foreign tourists, a 2 percent drop compared to 2025, while January arrivals climbed 3 percent to 2.25 million.