According to records kept by Atatürk and Sabiha Gökçen international airports along with the Haydarpaşa, Karaköy and Pendik ports, 1,156,949 tourists visited the historic city in the January-March period, while this figure was 1.24 million in the same period of last year. The statistics revealed that the majority of tourists came to the city by air, with only 9,863 visitors arriving in İstanbul by ship.
German tourists topped the list, with 135,497 visitors coming to İstanbul in the first quarter of the year, followed by visitors from Russia and Iran, at 86,011 and 55,837, respectively. According to figures from the İstanbul Culture and Tourism Provincial Directorate, 7.51 million tourists visited İstanbul last year, a rise of 6.5 percent over the previous year. The city is attempting to attract some 10 million tourists this year, assisted by its position as a European Capital of Culture. In the midst of the recent global financial crisis, Turkey was among just a few countries to see increasing tourist numbers in 2009. Nearly 27 million tourists visited Turkey last year, a 2.5 percent rise over 2008, although global tourism contracted 4 percent and European tourism dropped 6 percent.
