The number of foreign tourists arriving in Türkiye reached a new all-time high as of November, according to official data on Friday, with a month left to be accounted for.
Arrivals rose by nearly 7.1% year-over-year from January through November to just over 50 million, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said. That figure reaches 57.36 million when visitors of Turkish origin are included.
Türkiye welcomed a record of around 49.2 million foreign tourists in 2023.
In November alone, foreign arrivals jumped by 8.25% from a year ago to 2.73 million, the data showed.
December will thus cap a year of consistent momentum in a vital industry that Türkiye relies on for foreign exchange to help flip its chronic current account deficit to a surplus.
In October, the government revised its target upward and said it expects the overall figure to reach 61 million at the end of 2024, up from an earlier estimate of 60 million.
It sees tourism revenues reaching $60 billion by the end of the year. They rose 6.6% year-over-year to 46.9 billion in the first nine months.
Revenues hit an all-time high of $54.32 billion in 2023.
For 2025, the government estimates 64 million visitors and $64 billion in revenues in 2025.
Arrivals have been spearheaded by tourists from Russia and Europe, mainly Germany and the United Kingdom.
More than 6.5 million Russians arrived in Türkiye in the first 11 months, a 6.9% increase from a year ago, the data showed.
Tourists from Germany jumped by 6.8% to 6.36 million, while arrivals from the United Kingdom rose by nearly 17% to 4.34 million.
In November, Germans unseated Russians with 281,569 arrivals, marking 15.4% compared to the same month of 2023.
Tourists from Iran sit second with 258,918 arrivals, a 27.16% year-over-year increase. Russia capped the top three with arrivals rising 3.6% to 254,352, the data showed.
Russians for years constituted a significant market, but arrivals leaped significantly due to flight restrictions imposed by Western nations after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022.