‘Türkiye hosts over 135,000 Pakistanis among 62.2m visitors in 2024’

KARACHI: Türkiye has hosted over 135,000 Pakistanis among 62.2 million visitors in 2024, generating over USD 61 billion revenue.

According to Turkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, Türkiye has achieved a 9.8 percent year-on-year growth in its visitor numbers and hosted 62.2 million visitors including includes over 135,000 Pakistani tourists in 2024, representing a 20.3 percent growth compared to 2019, the pre-pandemic year.

With this figure, Türkiye also surpassed its own target of 60 million visitors, announced earlier in 2024.

In addition, Türkiye generated USD61.1 billion as tourism revenue, which is 8.3 percent more than the previous year. Overall, 2024 has been Türkiye’s most successful year in tourism.

Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia have remained Türkiye’s biggest source markets while emerging markets such as the Americas, India, and China showed great growth in 2024.

While Russia, Germany, and the United Kingdom remained Türkiye’s top three biggest source markets, the growth in the number of visitors from emerging markets was 8.1 percent for the USA, and a phenomenal 65.1 percent for China.

Türkiye’s international visitors spent an average of 10.7 days in the country, and the revenue per visitor was USD 972.

According to UN Tourism, Türkiye ranks among the world’s top five most visited destinations in 2023.

Many Pakistanis also participated in the Istanbul Marathon, renowned as the world’s only intercontinental race, starting on the Asian side of Istanbul and ending on the European side.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2025