Türkiye sees 12-pct increase in foreign tourists in Jan.-Feb.: report

ISTANBUL, March 22 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye hosted 4.3 million foreign tourists in the first two months of this year, a 12 percent year-on-year increase, the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Friday.

While the number of visitors in January showed a modest increase of 2 percent compared to the previous year, there was a significant surge of 22.68 percent in February, according to the ministry's statistical data.

The top choice for foreign visitors was Istanbul, the country's largest city renowned for its cultural and financial significance, constituting 56.3 percent of the total visits, the data showed.

Edirne, a northwestern province bordering Greece and Bulgaria, ranked as the second most visited province with 11.7 percent of the total visits, followed by the Mediterranean province of Antalya with 9.7 percent.

During the same period, Türkiye experienced the highest influx of Iranian tourists, followed by Russian and Bulgarian visitors.

In 2023, revenue from tourism in Türkiye soared by 17 percent year-on-year, reaching 54.3 billion dollars, while the number of visitors rose by 10 percent to 56.7 million.