Turkey attracts over 10m tourists in Jan-July

Turkey hosted 10.08 million foreign tourists in the first seven months of 2021, up by 85.44 percent year on year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry announced on Monday, reported Xinhua.

The financial and cultural hub, Istanbul, lured 38 percent of the total foreigners visiting the country in the January-July period, the ministry revealed in a report.

The southern province of Antalya, along the Mediterranean coast, became the second most popular destination in Turkey, attracting 32 percent of the tourists, in the same period.

According to the report, Russian tourists accounted for 15.41 percent of all the visitors, followed by Germans with 12.5 percent, and Ukrainians with 11.08 percent.

Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy earlier said Turkey is targeting a minimum 100-percent growth for 2021 in attracting foreign tourists.

The Turkish tourism industry shrunk by 70 percent at the end of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.