The recent release of final statistics data for Turkey tourism shows a marked slowdown of foreign tourist arrivals in 2025.
Last year, Turkey recorded 52.775 million foreign arrivals, up by a meager 0.28% compared to 2024. By comparison, between 2023 and 2024, arrivals grew by 6.95%.
Most continents showed a decline last year. Arrivals from African nationalities were down 3.83%, from Asian nationalities down 2.37% while European nationalities arrivals stagnated with a 0.03% growth.
Among the largest source markets in Europe, Spain performed extremely well, growing by 18.2% to reach 0.453 million arrivals followed by a strong performance from Italy up 12.7% with 0.811 million arrivals as well as from Ireland up 12.3% with 0.220 million arrivals.
Germany, Turkey largest EU source market, progressed slightly by 1.88% reaching 6.75 million arrivals. However, UK arrivals dropped by 3.69% to 4.27 million arrivals while the Netherlands were down by 2.12% to 1.275 million.
But also other “millionaire” source markets recorded growth : Poland was up 2.57% to reach 1.914 million arrivals while France grew last year 1.18% to reach 1.1 million arrivals.
Overseas, the USA performed extremely well, reaching 1.584 million arrivals, up 9.88% over 2024. Saudi Arabia arrivals grew 6% to reach 0.922 million.
In Asia, China generated 0.425 million arrivals, up 3.81%. South Korea arrivals reached 0.226 million, up 9.4%.
However, Indian arrivals dropped sharply by -24.24% reaching only 0.251 million last year. Finally, Australia also recorded a growth with nationals reaching 0.220 million, up 6.7%.
According to the latest data, January-February 2026 saw the number of foreign visitors’ arrivals increasing by 0,7% compared to the same period of 2025, equivalent to 4.373 million. However, February saw a contraction in foreign arrivals of 2,08% compared to the same month of 2025. March should the negative trend accelerating due to the Gulf War.
