Turkey welcomes over half million tourists in January

Turkey hosted 509,787 foreign visitors in the first month of 2021, the country’s Culture and Tourism Ministry said on Monday.

The figures decreased 71.48% year-on-year in January from 1.8 million due to the COVID19 pandemic measures, the official data showed.

Istanbul continued to be Turkey’s top tourist hub, attracting nearly 65.7% of foreign visitors -- 334,825 persons.

Edirne in northwestern Turkey, which borders both Bulgaria and Greece, saw the second-highest number of foreigners, with 52,698.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya followed with 9.22% or 47,023 foreign visitors.

Russians accounted for 17.54% of the visitors, followed by Iranians with 7.45%, Bulgarians with 6.02%, Ukrainians with 5.53%, and Germans with 5.32%.

Last year, more than 12.7 million foreigners entered Turkey amid the pandemic, down from nearly 45.05 million in 2019.

In 2020, Turkey launched a Safe Tourism Certification Program, which covers a broad range of safety measures in transport, accommodation, and health conditions for tourists and hospitality employees.