Tourist Arrivals passed 8 Million in Istanbul

Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry Istanbul Directorate announced the number of foreign tourist arrivals for October 2012.

A total of 913.134 tourists visited Istanbul in October 2012; an increase of 9.6 per cent compare to October 2011. Since beginning of 2012, a total of 8.001.108 tourists visited which states 15.7 percent increase compared to previous year.

German tourists continue their leadership with 11.6% of all tourists visiting Istanbul in first 10 months of 2012. Russians follow Germans with 5.6%. Other nationals choosing Istanbul as a tourist destination are American 5.3%, British 4.7%, French 4.6%, Italian 4.6%, Iranian 4.4%, Dutch 2.8%, Iraqi 2.3%, Libyan 2.2%, Spanish 2.1%, Azerbaijani 2.1%, Ukrainian 2.0%, Japanese 2.0%, Saudi Arabian 1.9%, other nationalities 41.8%.

Tourist Arrivals to Istanbul in the last 3 years by Countries (January – October)

Jan.-Oct.	2012	2011	2010	2012/2011	2011/2010
GERMANY	928.263	863.181	780.835	7,5	10,5
RUSSIAN FED.	444.120	412.830	337.694	7,6	22,2
UK	380.041	342.570	315.880	10,9	8,4
ITALY	367.863	351.629	349.840	4,6	0,5
FRANCE	369.469	346.211	295.516	6,7	17,2
IRAN	352.634	312.274	235.945	12,9	32,4
U.S.A	422.688	390.882	317.485	8,1	23,1
NETHERLANDS	223.546	199.032	181.047	12,3	9,9
JAPAN	157.851	140.072	146.860	12,7	-4,6
SPAIN	169.205	174.649	180.418	-3,1	-3,2
UKRAINE	162.230	131.010	114.954	23,8	14,0
AZERBAIJAN	165.156	129.958	115.232	27,1	12,8
S. KOREA	119.798	113.822	87.989	5,3	29,4
TURKMENISTAN	110.709	114.228	92.886	-3,1	23,0
BELGIUM	103.538	94.924	91.278	9,1	4,0
AUSTRIA	125.698	114.374	98.228	9,9	16,4
SWITZERLAND	126.242	107.406	89.001	17,5	20,7
ISRAEL	42.887	37.876	39.204	13,2	-3,4
GREECE	87.403	89.380	79.219	-2,2	12,8
CHINA	89.188	76.390	58.885	16,8	29,7
IRAQ	182.316	130.043	79.860	40,2	62,8
TUNISIA	66.309	45.420	41.178	46,0	10,3
LIBYA	173.797	26.971	48.387	544,4	-44,3
EGYPT	91.401	62.384	48.192	46,5	29,4

Source: ft news