The percentage of foreign tourists travelling to Istanbul has seen a major drop of 25.9 percent as compared to the previous year as reported by the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate. The decline in the tourist arrivals in December 2016 is 18% compare to December 2015.
It was in January 2016 when there was a slight increase of 0.1% in the arrival figure and June , on the other hand recorded the highest drop of -35.2% in the arrival figures. 4.441.458 foreign tourists visited Istanbul in the first half of 2016, and 4.762.529 in the second half of the year. 9.2 million tourists visited Istanbul in 2016. This was the first year-on-year decrease in the number of foreign arrivals to Istanbul since 2000.
The largest number of foreign tourists came from Europe with 3.9 million arrivals and the Middle East with 2.3 million. These were followed by Asia, Africa, North America, Latin America and Oceania. Germans topped the list by taking 10.9 percent of the share in total arrivals in 2016, followed by Iranians at 7 percent, Saudi Arabians at 5.2 percent, Britons at 4 percent, French tourists at 3.9 percent, Americans at 3.5 percent and Russians at 3.2 percent.
