Turkey's popularity as a tourist destination for Qatari nationals continues to rise, with the country welcoming a total of 30,160 Qataris within the first four months of the year, up 14.09 per cent increase compared to the same period last year, new data showed.

Figures released by the Turkish Cultural and Tourism Office in Dubai showed that 12,766 Qatari nationals travelled to Turkey during the month of April, representing a 101.77 per cent increase when compared to April last year.

As of now, a total of 66 flights depart from Qatar for several destinations across Turkey each week.

“We are delighted to see Turkey climb to one of the most popular tourist destinations for Qatari as well as other Gulf nationals. Visitors from neighbouring nations have always played a significant role in driving economic growth within Turkey by boosting its tourism sector,” commented Salih Ozer, attaché of Culture and Information, Turkey.

Over 8,735,200 tourists from around the world flew into Turkey in April, representing a 24 per cent increase in comparison to April last year. The largest influx of tourists into Turkey in the first four months of 2019 has been from Germany at just over 803,480 visitors, followed by Bulgaria and Russia.

Turkey’s Mediterranean province of Antalya also recently broke its record for the number of tourists arriving by air on a single day — 85,205 visitors flew into the city on June 8. Inbound tourist traffic per month also rose by 17 per cent in June with 570,422 visitors to the city.

So far, 3,870,211 tourists have visited Antalya this year, an 18 per cent increase when compared to the same period last year.