Antalya sees 14.5pct growth in number of Russian tourists

By Azernews

By Kamila Aliyeva

The number of Russian tourists visiting Antalya in April this year grew by 14.5 times, compared to the same period of last year, according to the report of the Governorate of the Antalya Province.

As many as 189,000 tourists from Russia visited province last month, while in April 2016, only 12,144 Russian citizens traveled to Antalya.

In general, the number of arrivals to Turkish Antalya amounted to 526, 000, which is 37 percent higher than in April 2016.

In 2016, Turkey was visited by 25.3 million foreigners, which is 30.05 percent less than the same indicator in 2015.

This year, Turkish tourism sector expects to receive about five million tourists from Russia, according to Hussein Yayman, the Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism of Turkey.

Russia has been the second largest source of foreign tourists visiting Turkey, but the number of Russian tourists began to decline after a diplomatic crisis between the two countries in late 2015. However, there has been a notable increase in arrivals from Russia since the normalization of bilateral ties between the two countries began.

In March 2017, a number of documents in the sphere of tourism were signed in Moscow following the talks between Turkish Deputy Minister of Culture and Tourism Huseyin Yayman and Head of the Federal Agency for Tourism of Russia (Rosturizm) Oleg Safonov.

The number of foreigners visiting Turkey dropped to 25.3 million in 2016. That is a 30 percent drop compared to 2015.

Turkey’s tourism revenue dropped to $22.1 billion in 2016, a 29.7 percent decrease compared to 2015, as the number of foreign arrivals to the country witnessed a dramatic plunge, the official data showed.

Turkey’s Tourism Ministry confirmed that the drop is correlated to a number of terrorist attacks and to the “failed” military coup on July 15, 2016.