Foreign arrivals in Türkiye jumped 21.35% in February, official data showed Friday, as tourists continue to flock to the country after a slump due to the fallout of the pandemic.
Türkiye has seen a complete rebound as the number of foreign tourists near the record and all-time high revenues seen in 2022, prompting the government to raise its tourism estimates for this year.
The number of foreign visitors arriving in February jumped to 1.87 million in February, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said Friday. The arrivals compared with 1.54 million foreign visitors in February 2022, 537,976 in February 2021 and around 1.7 million in 2020, just before the onset of the pandemic in the country.
Visitors from Russia, Bulgaria and Germany topped the list of foreigners who visited Türkiye in February, according to the data.
Russians led the way with over 227,965 arrivals, an increase of 103% compared to a year ago.
Bulgaria followed with 150,873 visitors, up 17.14% year-over-year, and Germany with 148,169, up 15.16%. Iran and Georgia were among the top five with around 113,000 and 104,000 arrivals, the data showed.
Istanbul, Türkiye’s largest city by population and a top tourist hub, attracted 1.08 million tourists. It was followed by Edirne, a city in Türkiye's northwest bordering Bulgaria and Greece, with 222,554 visitors and the resort town of Antalya welcomed 196,492 tourists.
The number of foreign tourists in the January-February period jumped 37.3% from a year ago to nearly 3.9 million, the data showed.
Arrivals from Russia rose nearly 106% year-over-year to 507,513, topping the list among nations in the two-month period.
Bulgaria followed with a 33.19% increase to over 318,000, while Germany came in third with a 24.6% jump from a year ago to 288,124, according to the data.
Foreign visitors surged 80.33% year-over-year to 44.6 million in 2022, just shy of the peak of 45.1 million in 2019. The figure is compared to the 24.71 million arrivals in 2021 and 12.73 million in 2020.
Tourism revenues jumped 53.4% to a record $46.3 billion last year, blowing past the previous high of $38.4 billion in 2019 before the pandemic hit. The figure stood at $30.2 billion in 2021 after the outbreak more than halved it to just $14.8 billion in 2020.
Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said foreign arrivals are expected to reach 60 million in 2023, before hitting 90 million in 2028. For the income, the government sees it rising to $56 billion this year and $100 billion five years from now.
COVID-19 restrictions dissipated in 2022 and Russians came in droves partly due to flight restrictions imposed by Western nations over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of Russians are also estimated to have moved last year to Türkiye, seen as a haven for investment in homes and other assets.
Surging demand from European countries also backed arrivals, spearheaded by Germany and the United Kingdom.
The foreign exchange it brings in makes tourism income vital to Türkiye’s economy, as the government’s new economic program focuses on flipping the current account deficits to a surplus, prioritizing exports, production and investments while curbing rising inflation.
