Türkiye, on Thursday, revised its target for the end of the year after official data showed that over 49 million visitors had arrived from January through September.

The total number of visitors in the first nine months rose 8.74% year-over-year to 49.18 million, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

That includes arrivals of foreign tourists, which increased by 6.75% to 41.86 million, and those of visitors of Turkish origin, which jumped by 21.7% to 7.32 million.

In September, foreign arrivals rose by 4.64% to nearly 6.1 million, the data showed.

The government now expects the overall figure to reach 61 million at the end of 2024, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said, up from earlier estimate of 60 million.

Türkiye welcomed a record of around 49.2 million foreign tourists in 2023, spearheaded by arrivals from Russia and Europe, mainly Germany and the United Kingdom.

That trend hasn't changed so far this year.

Most foreign tourists in the January-September period came from Russia, at 5.47 million, followed by Germany and the U.K.

Rise in tourism revenue

Separate data on Thursday showed Türkiye's tourism revenues rose 6.6% year-over-year to 46.9 billion in the first nine months. The government sees it reaching $60 billion by the end of the year.

The average expenditure per capita over the same period was $970, down 1.6% from the previous year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

During the third quarter alone, the income grew by 3.9% year-on-year to $23.2 billion.

Tourism revenues hit an all-time high of $54.32 billion in 2023, according to the official data.

The foreign exchange it brings makes tourism vital to Türkiye, which is keen to flip current account deficits to a surplus, prioritizing exports, production and investments while curbing inflation.