Nearly 11.5 million foreigners visited Turkey in first five months of 2018
ANKARA
Nearly 11.5 million foreigners visited Turkey in the first five months of the year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry announced on June 29.
The ministry said the figure rose by 30.8 percent on a yearly basis, up from 8.8 million in January-May last year.
Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city by population and one of its top tourist spots, saw the highest number of visitors, with nearly 4.9 million in the five-month period.
The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya came in second, with 2.64 million foreign visitors.
As for the nationalities of foreign visitors, Russia took first place with 12.1 percent - some 1.4 million visitors - over the same period, followed by Germany (9.7 percent) and Iran (8.55 percent).
Official data showed that air travel was the preferred means of transport, with 11.7 million travelers, while 4.5 million used roads and around 375,000 came by sea.
In May, 3.7 million foreigners also visited the country, up 16.27 percent from May 2017.
In 2016, some 35 million foreigners visited the country.
Turkey expects 40 million tourists from abroad this year, according to private sector representatives and officials.
