Foreign tourist arrivals in Turkey surge 28 pct in Jan.-Oct.

ANKARA, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) -- Around 29 million foreigners visited Turkey in the first ten months of this year, rising by 28 percent year on year, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced on Wednesday.

The revival of tourism was mainly due to an ongoing rebound in the Russian market, as the ties between the two countries have normalized after a jet crisis in 2015.

More than 4.5 million Russians visited Turkey in the first 10 months, with a 496-percent year-on-year increase, according to the data.

The number of Russian tourists in Turkey in October hit 442,970, almost doubled compared with the same period of last year, the data showed.

Russia took the first place by its share of 15.7 percent in the same period, followed by Germany and Iran, which took 11.5 percent and 7.3 percent of share respectively, Georgia and Britain ranked fourth and fifth.

Meanwhile, a total of 17.6 million European people visited Turkey with a nearly 1.6-percent decrease compared with the same period of last year.

Turkey's resort city of Antalya, which is located on the Mediterranean coast, recorded the highest number of visitors with 9.25 million in the period of Jan.-Oct. this year. Enditem