Istanbul quickly “healed the wounds” caused by the pandemic and set a record for tourist traffic, showing an increase of almost twice as much as last year. The number of foreign tourists increased by 66.15%. Russia took first place. At the same time, we note that we are talking about the summer months when there was no talk of another wave of “departees”. However, against the background of sanctions, Istanbul managed to become the “main city” for Russian tourists.
As told to the Turkish media by the Istanbul Culture and Tourism Department, the number of tourists in Istanbul amounted to 10.1 million people. For comparison, in the first 8 months of 2021, this number was only 4.8 million, and in 2020 – 3.1 million.
Also, a 66.15% increase in the number of foreign tourists was recorded in the Turkish “cultural capital”. Only in August, the number of foreigners who entered the country was 1.6 million people. The growth compared to 2021 was 66.15%.
At the same time, Russia was in first place in terms of the number of tourists. Germany and Iran are also in the top three, and Saudi Arabia and the USA are in the top five. Interestingly, in 2021, Germany and Iran were in first place, Russia was in third place.