The number of foreign arrivals to Türkiye’s largest metropolis extended a positive streak as Istanbul welcomed nearly 10.5 million tourists in the first seven months of the year, which marked a 7% surge compared to the same period last year, according to the official data on Sunday.
The tourist count in the city was at 10.47 million, according to the data from the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate, compared to 9.77 million in the January-July period last year.
When looking at monthly figures, Istanbul also registered an uptick in the number of tourists it hosted this July with 1.9 million compared to 1.87 million in the same month of 2023. This corresponded to an increase of 1.7%.
The largest number of arrivals in the month was via air at 1.83 million, while some 72,000 tourists came via sea, the directorate revealed.
Of tourists arriving via air, some 1.32 million were handled at Istanbul Airport, the data showed along with around 507,500 at Sabiha Gökçen Airport and 1,673 at Atatürk Airport.
Proportionally, of those arriving in the city by air, 72.21% preferred Istanbul Airport and 27.69% used Sabiha Gökçen International Airport.
Leading the list of arrivals to Istanbul in July were Russians with 192,018 visitors. They were followed by Germans with 153,861 and tourists from the U.S. with 114,412.
Next on the list were arrivals from Saudi Arabia, Iran, the U.K., France, Uzbekistan, the Netherlands, Iraq and Italy.
The number of foreign visitors arriving in Türkiye in general in July reached an all-time high on a monthly basis, official data showed last month.
The country welcomed 7.3 million tourists in the month, posting an increase of 2.6% on an annual basis.
Between January and July, the total number of foreign visitors rose by 8.27% from a year ago, reaching 28.98 million – a clear indication of the sector’s robust recovery and growing appeal.
Combined with the 4.49 million Turkish citizens arriving from abroad, the figure reached 33.47 million, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said.
Authorities expect arrivals to hit 60 million by year-end while targeting $60 billion in revenues.
The foreign exchange it brings makes tourism vital to Türkiye, which is keen to flip current account deficits to a surplus, prioritizing exports, production and investments while curbing inflation.
