American Tourism to Türkiye Up A Massive 77% Over 2019

According to data issued by the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Americans are swarming Turkey in staggering numbers. While tourism globally fell in 2020 and 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of Americans visiting Turkey in the first half of 2022 is up 76.8% over the same period in 2019.

“This is an extraordinary and exciting result,” says Yalçn Lokmanhekim, General Manager of TGA, Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, emphasizing not just the recovery of Turkish tourism from the pandemic, but also how Americans are vacationing in unprecedented numbers in Türkiye.

The city of Istanbul is the most popular tourist destination in Turkey, with a huge interest in exploring other regions of this country that covers both Europe and Asia. Following Istanbul, Americans’ favorite locations in Turkey now include the Aegean coast, the city of Izmir, and the unusual landscapes of Cappadocia in the country’s east.

From January to June 2019, 213,000 Americans visited Turkey, compared to 377,000 in the same time in 2022.