Some 50.4 percent of the 1.2 million foreign tourists who visited Turkey's holiday resort province of Antalya in the first four months of the year came from Germany and Russia.
A total of 1.2 million foreign visitors flew to the city between January and April, according to information compiled from Antalya Governor's Office.
The number of foreigners arriving in Antalya in the first four months of the year increased by 41 percent compared to the same period last year, while 855,023 foreign visitors came in the same period of 2017.
Germany led the way in the number foreign visitors with 309,602 people, followed by Russia with 296,189. The number of visitors from Germany increased by 35 percent compared to the first four months of last year, while the number of tourists from Russia rose by 59 percent.
The total number of visitors from the two countries reached 605,791, which accounted for 50.4 percent of all foreigners coming to the city.
The United Kingdom came third in the number of foreign visitors to Antalya in the first four months of the year with 69,466 people, followed by the Netherlands with 64,169, Israel with 41,841, Iran with 36,468, Poland with 29,900, Ukraine with 29,772, Belgium with 29,706 and Denmark with 17,505.
In the said period, there was an increase of 238 percent in the number of tourists from Croatia, 233 percent from Poland, 197 percent from Hungary, 145 percent from Slovenia, 143 percent from Finland and 98 percent from France.
In four months, the number of tourists coming from Norway decreased by 14 percent, while the number of tourists from Ukraine dropped by 1 percent.
Erkan Yağcı, chairman of the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers Association (AKTOB), stressed that Antalya and Germany are two important source markets, recalling that Russia came to the fore in the number of visitors to the city last year.
"At the moment it is not possible to comment on which of them will close the year in the first place, but they are both very important markets," Yağcı said. "There was a significant increase in demand for early bookings from Germany. If this continues, we expect a serious growth rate this year from the German market."
Yağcı noted that the growth in the Russian market is also very important and that they face a serious demand, suggesting that if the demand continues this way, there will be double-digit growth this year in the Russian market, as well.
Pointing to the serious rise in the U.K. market, Yağcı said if the growth trend continues this way, there will be a double-digit, high growth in the total number of tourists this year.
Yağcı also added that there is significant mobility in the domestic market along with an important demand for early reservations that will continue until the end of this month.
