Number of Russian tourists visiting Turkey increased by 1.384% in May compared to the same period last year. This increase pushed up total foreign tourist arrivals in the country.
As per data released by the Turkish Tourism Ministry, 608,472 Russians visited Turkey in May, thanks to the normalization in bilateral ties between Ankara and Moscow.
The number of foreign arrivals in Turkey increased by 16.3 percent reaching 2.89 million in May, after a tough year in which the country’s tourism sector was hit badly due to a series of terror attacks, a diplomatic crisis with Russia and a failed coup attempt.
However, arrivals from Europe continued to decline in May, as around 1.1 million Europeans visited Turkey in May, marking a year-on-year decrease of around 20 percent.
In May, Russia became the leading tourist market for Turkey, with a 21 percent share in total arrivals. Russia was followed by Germany, which took 10.2 percent share in total arrivals, and Georgia, which had an 8.1 percent share. They were followed by Britain and Bulgaria.
Hotel occupancy rates across Turkey also climbed to 61.5 percent in May with an 8.3 percent year-on-year increase, according to STR Global data released by TÜROB on June 24.
In May, hotel occupancy rates in Istanbul increased by 15.7 percent to 64.4 percent, but the city’s hotels remained the cheapest in Europe.
