Foreign tourist arrivals rise 2 percent to 7 million in August

ANKARA

Some 6.97 million foreign tourists visited Türkiye in August, marking a 2.05 percent year-on-year increase, according to data from the Culture and Tourism Ministry released on Sept. 22.

From January to August, Türkiye welcomed a total of 35.48 million foreign tourists, representing a slight 0.9 percent decline compared to the same period of 2024. Including Turks residing abroad, total visitors amounted to 40.47 million in the first eight months of 2025, the ministry’s figures showed.

Russians topped the list of foreign visitors in the January-August period, followed by Germans and Britons. In the first eight months of this year, 4.55 million Russians came to Türkiye, a 0.1 percent decline from a year earlier, while the number of German tourists rose by 0.3 percent year-on-year to 4.4 million.

According to the ministry data, Türkiye welcomed more than 3 million tourists from the U.K. in January-August, down 3.2 percent. Some 1.94 million Iranians visited the country during the same period, ranking fourth on the list, though arrivals from Iran fell 7.5 percent year-on-year. Visitors from Bulgaria claimed the fifth spot with 1.75 million, down 6.7 percent compared to the January-August period of 2024.

Istanbul was the most visited city, accounting for 34.86 percent – or 12.37 million people – of all foreign tourist arrivals, followed by Antalya with 30.87 percent (10.95 million) and Edirne with 8.68 percent (3.1 million). Muğla attracted 2.5 million foreign tourists, representing 7.04 percent of the total, in the first eight months of 2025.