Tourism in Turkey

Tourism in Turkey is focused largely on a variety of historical sites, and on seaside resorts along its Aegean and Mediterranean Sea coasts.

Turkey's largest city, Istanbul has a number of major attractions derived from its historical status as the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires.

[5] The number of foreign tourists visiting Istanbul declined to 9.2 million in 2016, a 26 percent decrease compared to 2015.

[14] Izmir is a city with historical and geopolitical importance in ancient civilizations such as Macedonia, Persia, Lydia, and the Ottomans.

[21] Attractions elsewhere in the country include the sites of Ephesus, Troy, Pergamon, House of the Virgin Mary, Pamukkale, Hierapolis, Trabzon (where one of the oldest monasteries is the Sümela Monastery), Konya (where the poet Rumi had spent most of his life), Didyma, Church of Antioch, ancient Pontic capital and king rock tombs with its acropolis in Amasya, religious places in Mardin (such as Deyrülzafarân Monastery), and the ruined cities and landscapes of Cappadocia.

This city is considered one of the important options for traveling to the east of Turkey due to its numerous historical, religious and cultural places.

Due to the civil wars between the PKK group and the central government of Turkey in the 90's, the number of tourists in this region decreased.

Following the landing at Anzac Cove, the beach became the main base for the Australian and New Zealand troops for the eight months of the Gallipoli campaign.

Commonly performed medical procedures are hair transplant operations, rhinoplasty, cosmetic dentistry, bariatric surgery, buttock augmentation, mammaplasty and mastopexy as it draws in thousands of foreigner tourists every year.

[33] Other reasons for the high demand for healthcare in Turkey are foreigners having easy visa procedures and immediate scheduling for operations.

The number of Russian tourists increased by 444% after the recovery of bilateral relations, resulting in Russia becoming the top tourism market for Turkey once again.

[47] In March 2017, a Turkish court banned global travel fare aggregator website Booking.com from offering services to Turkish tourists for lack of a national licence,[48] while the Hoteliers Association of Turkey campaigns for a lifting the ban of the enterprise on which its members relied for up to 90 percent of their turnover.

[49] In April 2017, the police department of the prime resort city of Antalya issued a directive banning the consumption of alcohol outside of buildings.

[55][56] In 2021, Turkey's tourism recovered from the pandemic as it contributed $59.3 billion to the GDP, which made up 7.3% of the total economy.