Istanbul tourism continues post-attacks recovery

Tourism in Istanbul is continuing its recovery from the effects of the 2015-16 terror attacks. The Istanbul Culture and Tourism Directorate announced city’s travel statistics for July 2017. Istanbul’s tourist arrivals boom compare to July 2016. The directorate said that total tourist arrivals to the city in July 2017 increased 43% compare to July 2016. Germany ranked No.1 source market for Istanbul.

The tourist arrivals continue to rise since April 2017. Istanbul welcomed 5,704,702 tourists in the first 7 months of 2017; an increase of 6.3% compare to same period last year.

In July 2017, a total of 1,319,549 tourists visited Istanbul; an increase of 42.7% compare to July 2016.

German tourists ranked top with 538,945 travelers, Iran followed with 427,018 travelers. Saudi Arabia ranked third with 294,401 travelers.

In the first 7 months of 2017, German tourists are the number 1 source market for Istanbul tourism. The top source markets and their percentages are as follows:

Germany: 9.4%, Iran: 7.5%, Saudi Arabia: 5.2%, Iraq: 4.7%, Russia: 4.4%, France: 3.5%, UK: 3.5%, Ukraine: 3.1%, USA: 2.9%, The Netherlands: 2.6%, Kuwait: 2.4%, Turkmenistan: 2.1%, Azerbaijan: 2.0%, China: 1.9%, Algeria: 1.8%, Other countries: 43.0%

Middle East Travel Market (Last 3 Years)

January - July		2015	2016	2017	2016-2017 change %
Saudi Arabia		245.824	223.807	299.798	34,0
Iraq		198.425	131.036	262.777	100,5
Kuwait		92.564	88.465	138.371	56,4
Algeria		79.686	87.611	102.194	16,6
Jordan		60.101	69.710	91.372	31,1
Lebanon		69.611	70.676	78.293	10,8
Tunis		55.826	56.513	57.638	2,0
Syria		161.526	58.167	53.686	-7,7
Egypt		52.017	53.079	51.926	-2,2
Morocco		49.455	44.064	49.403	12,1
Libya		155.898	38.576	46.332	20,1
Bahrain		15.834	21.696	32.946	51,9
UAE		28.463	20.490	24.485	19,5
Qatar		20.021	17.325	24.432	41,0
Yemen		12.509	10.778	14.329	32,9
Oman		10.427	7.530	12.388	64,5
Palestine		6.750	7.778	11.275	45,0
Sudan		6.261	5.665	5.880	3,8
		1.321.198	1.012.966	1.357.525	34,0