Türkiye's tourism boom: millions of visitors in early 2024

Türkiye has hosted over 4.3 million tourists in the first two months of 2024, with the most foreign visitors arriving from neighbouring Iran, Bulgaria, and Russia.

According to data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry compiled by Anadolu on Monday, Türkiye received 56.6 million visitors from other countries last year, including 49.2 million foreign nationals and 7.4 million Turkish citizens living abroad.

In 2024, Türkiye saw 2.4 million foreign visitors in January and 2.2 million in February, according to border entry and exit statistics, while last year saw a total of 3.8 million visitors entering the country.

This means the number of foreign visitors to Türkiye this January-February soared 12 percent from the same period last year, reaching 4.3 million. The first two months of 2023 plus all of 2024 saw a total of 61.3 million tourists come to Türkiye.

Iranian tourists were 437,900, followed by Russia at 433,600 and Bulgaria at 345,300.

Istanbul came first in the list of cities where visitors to Türkiye entered the country, followed by Edirne – bordering Greece – then the Turkish Riviera resort of Antalya, followed by Artvin and Agri. ⁠