The number of foreign visitors dropped by 35.6% in the first four months of the year albeit a slight increase (3,162%) in April with base effect.
The visitor figures announced by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism revealed a 76% percent decrease in April, compared to April 2019, when 3.3 million foreign tourists visited Turkey. The visitor figure was only 24,238 in April 2020. Accordingly, the numbers still correspond to one fourth of the figures observed in April 2019.
The impact of the pandemic has also been reflected on the first four months of this year. The number of foreign visitors declined by 35.6% to 2.74 million in January-April, compared to the same period of the previous year. The key determinant of this decrease was that 3.5 million foreign tourists that visited the country in January-February 2020, as COVID-19 was not officially seen in the country in that period. The number of foreign visitors barely exceeded one million in January-February 2021.
Russia sent the highest number of foreign visitors to the country by 552,048 people and a 20.12% share in January-April 2021. Iran ranked second by 194,384 tourists and 7.1% share while Ukraine, Germany and Bulgaria followed, respectively.
