Khaberni - Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, announced on Friday that tourism revenue during the first 9 months of the current year amounted to 50 billion dollars, an increase of 5.7% compared to the same period in 2024.
Ersoy stated during a press conference held at the Ataturk Cultural Center in Istanbul, that Turkey has reached its highest historical levels of tourism in the third quarter of 2025, and pointed out that his country has become one of the global leaders in the field of sustainable tourism.
The minister confirmed that Turkey surpasses its numbers annually, setting record figures in tourism revenues and tourist arrivals.
He explained that Turkey received about 30 million visitors in the first nine months of 2017, 49 million 181 thousand visitors during the same period in 2024, and 49 million 993 thousand visitors in 2025.
He said, "We have placed Turkey among the top 5 countries in the global tourism market. According to United Nations data, we surpassed Italy in 2024 and rose to the fourth position in the tourism ranking."
The minister continued that his country targets achieving tourism revenues of 64 billion dollars by the end of the current year.
He mentioned that Russians topped the list of tourists coming to Turkey, followed by Germans and then the British.
Turkey welcomed 62.3 million tourists in 2024, recording tourism revenues of 61.1 billion dollars.
Tourism in Turkey relies heavily on a variety of historical and natural sites, and on beach resorts along the coasts of the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, and has lately become a favored destination for cultural and health tourism.
Turkey is one of the foremost winter tourism destinations, featuring many ski resorts, the most prominent of which are "Uludag" in Bursa near Istanbul, "Erciyes" in Kayseri, and "Palandöken" in Erzurum (east).
