Turkey’s foreign arrivals surge 151% in January from year ago

ISTANBUL – The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkey jumped 151% from a year earlier to 1.28 million in January, data showed on Monday, as the sector continued to recover from the impact of measures to combat the spread of COVID-19 since 2020.

The arrivals were still down from a level of 1.79 million foreign visitors in January 2020. Turkey began closing borders and restricting activity in March of that year, when its first COVID-19 cases were recorded.

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkey soared 94.1% to 24.71 million last year, when COVID-19 measures were eased compared to 2020.

(Reporting by Nevzat Devranoglu; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Jonathan Spicer)