Foreigner visits to Turkey jump over 11% in January-May

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - The number of foreign arrivals in Turkey surged 11.3% year-on-year in the first five months of this year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Friday.

Nearly 12.8 million foreigners visited the country this January-May, compared to 11.5 million in the same period last year.

Istanbul, one of the country's top tourist draws, recorded the greatest number of foreign arrivals, with 5.4 million.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya came second, welcoming 3.1 million foreign visitors.

Russians made up 13.1% of foreign visitors (or 1.8 million), followed by German citizens at 9.5% (1.2 million) and Bulgarians at 7.7% (more than 980,000).