ANKARA
Turkey's southwestern coastal city of Antalya, already one of Turkey’s top tourism destinations, has welcomed 3.5 percent more tourists in the first 11 months of 2014 than the same period last year.
Nearly 11.8 million tourists came to Antalya this year, while the country’s largest sea province received 11.4 million tourists in 2013, according to data released by the Antalya office of Turkey's Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Among the international visitors that chose Antalya as a holiday destination, Russian citizens ranked at the top of the list with 3,479,391 visitors.
Despite the Russian Ruble being devalued by some 60 percent since 2013, as well as the West's sanctions against Russia, tourists from the country continue to come to Turkey.
"Turkey is the country that Russians feel most secure. I do not think they will give up on Turkey as destination," the head of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies, Basaran Ulusoy, said, adding that the flight duration is only just over two hours.
Turkey attracted more than 4.2 million Russians in 2013, which made up over 12 percent of the 35 million total tourists visiting the country.
Germans followed Russians with 2,911,823 visitors and Dutch tourists came third with 541,821 visitors in the first 11 months of 2014.
In 2012, Antalya, Turkey's biggest international sea resort, became the third most visited city in the world in terms of the number of international arrivals, ranking behind Paris and London respectively.
Antalya previously ranked fourth in the world in 2010 for visitors and is expected to attract increased numbers of both domestic and foreign tourists after new investments by the Turkish government and private investors.
The city will also host the G20's leaders meeting in 2015.
Antalya's main industry is tourism, but agriculture, trade and the film industry are also major economic activities in the southwestern city.
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