Türkiye welcomed 64 million international visitors in 2025, generating $65.2 billion in tourism revenue — both all-time records — with Russia emerging as the single largest source market, according to official reports.
Russia contributed 6.9 million arrivals, equivalent to roughly 10.8% of total inbound traffic, overtaking Germany in 2025 to claim the top position. Germany followed with approximately 6.75 million visitors (10.5% of arrivals), while the United Kingdom ranked third with over 4 million, representing 6.7% of the total.
Russia: Volume and strategic depth
Long-standing cultural and historical ties, direct air connectivity, and expanded visa facilitation underpinned Russia's performance. Coastal regions — particularly Antalya — and city-break destinations such as Istanbul absorbed the bulk of Russian demand. Early indicators for 2026 point to continued strong growth from this market despite seasonal fluctuations.
Germany and the UK: Established but evolving
German travellers are valued not only for volume but for spending patterns: longer stays, higher expenditure on luxury accommodation, and strong participation in cultural tourism. Direct flights linking Germany to Istanbul and Antalya, combined with favourable exchange rates, supported the steady flow.
The UK, while recording a slight dip versus prior years, remains central to Türkiye's luxury, coastal, and city-break segments. A shift toward short city breaks and extended family holidays helped sustain off-season demand.
Middle East and Asia gaining ground
Saudi Arabia posted over 2.5 million visitors — a 13.5% year-on-year increase — driven by family-oriented travel, luxury resorts, and the expanding middle class linked to the Saudi Vision 2030 initiative. China grew 12% in visitor numbers, supported by visa waivers and expanding direct air routes to Istanbul and Antalya.
Iran contributed over 2.8 million visitors (4.5% of arrivals), sustained by geographical proximity, visa ease, and medical and leisure tourism flows. Bulgaria, sharing a land border with Türkiye, recorded over 2 million arrivals (approximately 3.5%), largely through day trips, shopping tourism, and weekend getaways to Istanbul and Edirne.
Poland, Romania, France, Italy, and Spain also contributed to the overall total, with Poland and Romania together accounting for around 4% of arrivals.
2026 targets
Türkiye's Ministry of Culture and Tourism has set a revenue target of $68 billion for 2026, with strategic focus on long-haul markets including China, India, and the United States, alongside year-round cultural, health, and business tourism segments.
Why it matters
For travel-trade operators, the 2025 data redraws the source-market hierarchy in a commercially significant way. Russia's position at the top — overtaking Germany in 2025 — signals that Eastern connectivity and visa facilitation have become as strategically important as traditional Western European feeder routes. Tour operators and bedbanks pricing inventory for Antalya and Istanbul must account for Russian demand patterns, which skew heavily toward coastal all-inclusive product and city breaks.
The 13.5% growth from Saudi Arabia and 12% growth from China indicate that Middle Eastern and Asian long-haul segments are moving from marginal to material. DMCs and ground handlers that have historically oriented their contracting toward European source markets face a structural incentive to diversify supplier agreements and multilingual service capacity.
The $68 billion revenue target for 2026 — up from $65.2 billion — implies a roughly 4.3% revenue growth ambition even as visitor-number targets are not explicitly quantified in official guidance. For hotel investors and asset managers, the combination of record arrivals, rising per-visitor revenue, and a broadening source-market base strengthens the investment case for capacity expansion, particularly in coastal and urban gateway properties.
