The number of foreign visitors to Türkiye increased by 128% in the January-July period this year compared to the first seven-month period of the previous year, according to official data Monday.

With this increase, tourist arrivals have reached 23.3 million, the data by the Culture and Tourism Ministry showed.

In the seven-month period, Germany sent the most number of tourists to Türkiye.

The number of visitors coming from that country topped 2.9 million with a 137% year-on-year rise.

Russians took second place with an increase of 41.36% to reach 2.1 million while the United Kingdom took third place with an increase of 2,036% and 1.8 million tourists from that country.

Britain was followed by Bulgaria and Iran, respectively.

Meanwhile, according to separate data released by the Turkish Statical Institute (TurkStat), a total of 26.1 million visitors were hosted in the period, together with 3.1 million Turkish citizens residing abroad.

Last month alone, the country hosted 6.6 million foreign visitors with an increase of 52.84% compared to the same month of the previous year.

Germany again ranked first in July with 962,003 visitors, followed by Russia and the U.K. with 741,419 and 545,973 visitors, respectively.

Britain was followed by the Netherlands and Bulgaria.

The number of tourists pouring in from Russia and European markets is already rising at a faster-than-expected pace, prompting Türkiye’s seasonal expectations to be revised upward, according to previous statements by industry officials.

Türkiye last month lifted its targets to $37 billion in tourism revenues and 47 million tourists for this year, up from earlier forecasts of $35 billion and 45 million.

Industry officials cite Türkiye’s position and its careful policy when it comes to Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

The government has pursued what President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan calls a "balanced" approach to Kyiv and Moscow and has maintained close links with both countries.

Ankara has criticized Russia’s invasion, sent armed drones to Ukraine and sought to facilitate peace talks between the sides. But it has not backed Western sanctions on Moscow and seeks to maintain close trade, energy and tourism ties.

At least five Turkish banks have started using Russia’s Mir payments system, allowing Russian tourists to pay for their purchases in Türkiye.

Russian cards issued by Visa and Mastercard stopped functioning overseas after the world’s two most prominent payment processing networks ceased operations in early March.

Türkiye is also among the few countries that maintained reciprocal flights with Russia.

Russians and Ukrainians were Türkiye’s first and third biggest sources of visitors, respectively, in 2021. Russians accounted for 19% of foreign visitors, with 4.7 million people, while Ukraine was the third-largest at 8.3%, with 2.1 million people.

The number of foreign visitors soared 94.1% to 24.71 million last year when COVID-19 measures were eased compared to 2020. Tourism revenues doubled to almost $25 billion, recovering from the worst of the COVID-19 impact, but remaining well below the level recorded in 2019.