Monthly foreign visitors to Istanbul leap to 10-year high

Istanbul, Türkiye's largest city by population and a top tourist destination, hit a 10-year high in monthly foreign visitors this July, drawing 1.8 million to the historic metropolis. Compared to last July's figure of 1.1 million, foreign visitor surged 56%, with 1.7 million coming by air to the city and 28,827 by sea, according to Istanbul Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate data released Wednesday. Compared to the same period last year, the number of arrivals by air shot up by over half, while those arriving by sea skyrocketed nearly 900%. Istanbul also welcomed nearly 40% of all foreign visitors in the country, or 8.5 million, in the first seven months of the year. Türkiye itself attracted over 23 million foreign visitors this January to July, surging 128% annually, said the official data. Germans contributed the lion's share of visitors to Istanbul with 142,077, followed by Russia with 133,218, the U.S. with 97,355, and Iran with 94,708. Istanbul hosted some one-third of the total visitors who visited the country in the first seven months of the year. This April-June, Türkiye's tourism revenues surged 190% from a year earlier to $8.72 billion, said data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat). Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy had previously said Türkiye is aiming for $37 billion in tourism revenues and 47 million tourists this year, raising its earlier targets of $35 billion and 45 million arrivals.