About 3.5 million tourists from Russia visited Turkey in January - September 2021, the Association of tour operators of Russia (ATOR) said citing the data of the Turkish ministry of culture and tourism.
"The country's border services recorded 3,456,859 visits of Russian citizens to Turkey in the first nine months of 2021. This is an increase of 143.2% compared to the same period in 2020, but still 41.4% less than the volume of Russian tourist traffic during the same period before the pandemic, in 2019," the ATOR said.
The association noted that most tourists came to Turkey from Russia. The share of the Russian Federation in the total foreign tourist flow to the country was 19.65%. In September, 996,322 Russian tourists visited Turkey - 7% less than in September 2019. According to ATOR forecasts, 4-4.5 million Russians will visit Turkey by the end of the year 2021. Given the high activity of tourists in October and November, the limit is quite achievable, the association added.
Earlier, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, the minister of culture and tourism of Turkey, said that Turkey expects that in 2021 the republic will be visited by at least 4 million tourists from Russia. As last year, Russia ranks first in terms of the number of citizens who visited Turkey, he added.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS