Nearly 35.6 million foreigners visit Turkey in Jan-Oct

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA

Nearly 35.6 million foreigners visited Turkey in the January-October period this year, the Culture and Tourism Ministry announced Friday.

In the 10-month period, the number of foreign visitors climbed 22.4 percent compared to some 29 million in the same period last year.

The Mediterranean resort city of Antalya was the top destination with 12 million foreign visitors, accounting for 33.7 percent of all foreign visitors.

Istanbul, Turkey's world-famous touristic city, was the second among all cities with 11.3 million foreign visitors.

Russia was the top country with 5.72 million visitors, accounting for 16.1 percent of all foreign visitors.

It was followed by Germany (4.15 million visitors), the U.K. (2.16 million visitors), Bulgaria (1.97 million visitors) and Georgia (1.79 million visitors).

The most preferred means of transport was by air with nearly 27.4 million foreign visitors.

From January to October, some 7.3 million and over 922,000 visitors used roadway/railway and seaway, respectively.

According to official figures, 32.4 million foreigners visited Turkey last year, while the number of arriving foreigners was 25.3 million in 2016.