TURKEY welcomed 3 million foreign visitors in the first two months of 2018, the Culture and Tourism Ministry said Friday.

Three million foreign nationals visited Turkey in January and February, up 35 percent from same months in 2017, the ministry said in a statement.

Iran topped the list of visitors by country, with over 350,000, followed by Georgia with over 307,000 and Bulgaria with over 231,000. 197,000 tourists from Germany and 134,000 visitors from Russia followed.

Well over half of the foreign visitors last month – 56.21 percent or over 1.6 million people – came to Istanbul.

Culture and Tourism Minister Numan Kurtulmus previously said Turkey hopes to attract at least 38 million tourists in 2018. Turkey hosted over 32 million tourists last year, earning $26.5 billion.

(AA)