ISTANBUL
The number of foreign tourists who visited Turkey increased by 1 percent to 31.8 million.
According to Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) figures, comparing with 2011, the number of foreign tourists who visited Turkey increased by 1 percent to 31.8 million in 2012.
Last year, even though the most foreign tourists arrived in Turkey from OECD European countries with 15.5 million, compared to 2011, the number of tourists who arrived in Turkey from this group was down by 0.1 percent.
Also, the number of tourists who arrived in Turkey from Asian countries in 2012 was 3.8 million.
Considering country groups arriving in Turkey according to 2012 and compared with 2011, the most increase was 1,200 percent from the Oceania countries and followed by 60 percent increase from African countries and thirdly 19.6 percent from East Asian countries.
On the other hand, the number of Asian tourists who arrived in Turkey decreased 13 percent. Number of tourists from South Asian countries decreased the most by 33.6 in Asia group.
-Number of Libyan tourists arriving in Turkey up 299 percent-
The most increase of foreign tourists who arrived in Turkey when compared with previous year was from Libya with 299 percent increase and the number of Libyan tourists arrived in Turkey was 213 thousand 890 followed by Qatar with 82.4 percent increase and thirdly Kuwait with 56.6 percent increase.
-Number of Iranian and Syrian tourists visiting Turkey down-
Number of tourists who arrived from Iran in 2012 decreased the most by 36.9 percent compared to 2011 and was followed by the Dominican Republic by 29.2 percent and Syria 25.1 percent.
According to previous year, the most of the tourists arrived in Turkey were from Germany with 5 million 28 thousand 745 and followed by Russia with 3 million 599 thousand 925 and England with 2 million 456 thousand 519.
