The head of the Professional Hotel Management Association (POYD) headquartered in Antalya revealed that an expected 8 million foreign tourists will visit Antalya this year.

"We expect around 7.5 to 8 million foreign tourists to visit Antalya this year, which will represent a 30 percent increase compared to 2016," Hakan Duran told Anadolu Agency.

Duran also said that early booking rates from southern European countries such as Italy, Greece, Spain and Portugal had reached 40 percent.Russian tourists are expected to make up a large portion of foreign visitors to the Mediterranean city.

"We are expecting about 2 to 2.5 million Russian tourists to visit Antalya this year. If we reach this number, we can close 2017 with around 7.5 to 8 million foreign arrivals, even in the event of some 1 million losses from the European market," Duran said.

Duran also said that POYD anticipates some 650,000 to 700,000 Israeli tourists in Antalya this year.