The top 10 travel destinations for 2023 are listed in American Express’s list of 2023 Trending Destinations.
The Florida Keys and Copenhagen were ahead of Turkey’s megacity on the list. Paris was ranked eighth, followed by Lisbon and Mexico City, respectively.
Istanbul received 13.4 million foreign visitors between January and October of this year, up 92% over the same time in 2020.
There were just 4.2 million foreign visitors to the city in the first ten months of 2019. Over 9 million international visitors arrived in total in 2021, up from 5 million in 2020.
When compared to the same month in 2021, the number of foreign visitors climbed by 37.5% in just October.
The majority of the foreign visitors were Russians, followed by Iranians and German nationals.
185,000 Russians arrived in the city last month, making up roughly 12% of all international visitors, according to figures from the regional office of culture and tourism.
In October, Istanbul welcomed 116,000 Germans and around 95,000 Iranians. Americans and Britons made up 4.6 percent (72,000) and 4 percent (63,000) of all international arrivals, respectively, in terms of tourists.
Over 40,000 Israelis and over 55,000 French people visited the city last month.
Saudi visits more than doubled from 517 in October 2021 to 49,000 in the same month of 2022, while United Arab Emirates visitors increased by 228 percent year over year to 6,400.
The survey by American Express was done in July 2022 among a sample of 2,000 U.S. passengers, who were defined as adults who regularly fly at least once per year and had a household income of at least $70,000.
