site.btaNearly 4 Mln Foreign Tourists Visit Istanbul in January-March 

The number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul for the first three months of the year reached 3,766,718, up by 8.22% year-on-year, according to data of the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism. This is over half of the total number of foreign tourists (7,420,850) who visited Turkey in the same period. 

In March alone, 1,309,280 foreigners visited the metropolis near the Bosphorus. Russia topped the ranking, with 163,438 visits, followed by Iran, the UK, the United States, France and Italy. Of the Arab countries, the most tourists are from Algeria, Iraq, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, followed by Lebanon, Libya, Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. In March, the most tourists (918,036) arrived through Istanbul International Airport, bringing the airport's share of the total tourist flow to 75%. Some 382,096 foreigners arrived at Istanbul’s second airport, Sabiha Gokcen. In March, 8.83% more tourists from abroad arrived by air compared to the same period of 2023.