In Antalya's tourism sector, the all-time record of 15 million 280 thousand tourists in 2019 has been surpassed, reaching a new milestone in November 2023 with nearly 15 million 371 thousand tourists from around 200 countries. The year 2023 has become a historic record-breaking year in the tourism history of Antalya, a city renowned globally for tourism and ranking first in tourist numbers in the Mediterranean basin. Just one month before the end of 2023, Antalya has achieved its highest-ever tourist count, surpassing the record set in 2019. According to the data from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, in the 12 months of 2019, Antalya hosted a total of 15,280,763 tourists. In 2023, as of November 30th, the total number of tourists visiting Antalya reached 15,371,773. With one month remaining, 2023 has become the year with the highest number of tourists in the history of Antalya's tourism.
November saw an increase of 0.7%, with 404,946 tourists visiting Antalya. Germans led with 118,000 tourists, Russians came second with 80,000, followed by the British with 44,000, Poland with nearly 17,000, and the Netherlands with around 6,000 tourists. Compared to November of the previous year, this year witnessed a 25% increase in German tourists and a 36% decrease in Russian tourists.
The number of tourists from the UK increased by 26%, and Poland experienced a 28% increase. In the 11 months between January and November of this year, out of the total 15,371,773 tourists who visited Antalya from nearly 200 countries, 14.5 million were foreigners, and 870,000 were Turkish citizens residing abroad. There was a 16.3% increase in the number of tourists compared to the same period last year, accounting for an increase of 2,158,000 people.
Russia led the tourist numbers with a 15% increase, reaching 3,401,000 tourists and a 23.4% total share. Germany followed closely with an almost 19% increase, hosting 3,285,000 tourists and a 22.6% share. The UK came third with a 14.5% increase, hosting 1,288,000 tourists and an 8.8% share. Poland, in fourth place, experienced an almost 40% increase with 1,058,000 tourists, securing a 7.3% share. Almost 59% of total tourists in Antalya came from Russia, Germany, the UK, and Poland. Compared to 2019, the only countries showing a decrease were Russia and Ukraine, likely due to the ongoing conflicts. In 2019, 5.5 million Russians and 802,000 Ukrainians visited, while in the same period of 2023, the number of Russian tourists dropped to 3.4 million, and Ukrainians decreased to 264,000. The loss from these two countries due to the conflict amounted to a total of 2,661,000 people.
