Thursday, July 18, 2019
A record number of tourists visited Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul during the first five months of the year due to its peaceful environment, affordable prices and a range of tourism products.
Around 5.3 million foreigners visited Istanbul between January and May showing a year-on-year increase of 11 percent. The data was unveiled by the Istanbul Provincial Directorate if Culture and Tourism.
According to Ali Can Aksu, head of the Turkish Hotel Managers Association, the most significant factor behind the increase is the creation of a peaceful environment for hosting tourists in the city.
After the attempted coup in 2016 and other terror attacks that was being targetted in the city Since the summer of 2015, Istanbul could dress its wounds.
He went on saying that Istanbul also become one of the most affordable tourist destinations in the world that has been attracting people from diverse nationalities who are interested in shopping, culture and history.
Last year the Turkish lira crashed against the U.S. dollar of 35-40 percent last year due to several factors like the various disputes in the international arena and internal economic volatility.
Around 394,925 visitors from Germany came to Istanbul showing a 4.8 percent year-on-year increase this was followed by Iran 337, 428 and Russia with 290, 985 visitors.
As compared to the same period last year the number of Russian tourists increased and the number of Iranian tourists went down by 17.7 percent.There has been an economic crisis in Iran as the purchasing power has significantly dropped.
The number of Saudi Arabian tourists also went down by 33.2 percent to 122,115 from 182,689.Another significant decline was observed in the number of Saudi Arabian tourists, as it plunged by 33.2 percent to 122,115 from 182,689.
After the brutal murder of Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Saudi tourists started to shun Turkey.
Istanbul saw a significant increase in the number of tourists coming from almost all European countries, especially Spain, France, Italy, Serbia and the Netherlands.
The number of Chinese tourists increased by 5.6 percent to 148,658 from 140,835 and the number of tourists from South Korea and India grew by 39.2 percent and 55.6 percent respectively.
A total of 13.4 million foreign visitors came to Istanbul from 199 countries.
Firuz Baglikaya, head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies expects the figure is expected to hit 15 million at the end of this year.
Tags: Istanbul
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