The number of tourists arriving in Turkey's holiday resort city Antalya, which has seen record-breaking figures in tourism this year, reached an all-time high in October.
In the first 10 months of this year, the number of tourists visiting Antalya totaled around 12.5 million, while the city hosted about 4.6 million Russian tourists alone in this period.
Antalya, which has seen double-digit growth in the number of foreign visitors every year since the 2000s, experienced two difficult years for the first time in 2016 and 2017.
Especially in 2016, the city saw its tourist numbers drop by almost half to 6.5 million; however, it celebrated skyrocketing figures this year following the recovery in 2017.
After exceeding 10 million in 2017, the city intends to attract 14 million visitors this year. Antalya had already reached its highest number of tourists ever by the middle of October, exceeding 12 million.
According to Antalya Airport Local Authority and Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport data, the number of tourists arriving in the city between Jan. 1 and Oct. 31 surged by 28 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 12.5 million. The number of tourists, which stood at 9.5 million in the same period last year, increased by 2.7 million this year.
Antalya Airport welcomed 12.2 million passengers, while Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport approached 375,000 arrivals. The number of tourists arriving at Antalya Airport in October increased by 40 percent compared to the same period of the previous year, exceeding 1.3 million. With Gazipaşa-Alanya Airport, the total figure surpassed 1.4 million.
It also saw its highest-ever number of Russian tourists. Of the 12.5 million tourists arriving in Antalya via two airports, 37 percent were Russian, amounting to 4.6 million. Compared to last year, the number of Russian tourists rose by 850,000, an increase of 23 percent. Meanwhile, in the same period of 2014, known as the best year in tourism, 3.4 million Russian tourists had arrived.
Germany was the second country sending the largest number of tourists to Turkey's tourism capital. A total of 2.2 million German tourists arrived in 10 months, with an increase of 35 percent in rate and 620,000 in number compared to the same period of the previous year.
Ukraine ranked third with 724,000 tourists, a 1 percent drop compared to last year. Furthermore, there was also an increase of 50-60 percent this year from other European countries such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Sweden, where serious losses were experienced in the last two years.
