Turkey's foreign visitor arrivals post smallest fall in eight months in Nov

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkey dropped 21.35 percent to 1.35 million in November, the Tourism Ministry said on Thursday. November posted the smallest percentage fall in eight months as Turkey’s tourism industry struggles amid political and security concerns.

The number of foreign people visiting Turkey declined to 22.7 million in the first 10 months of 2016, a 31 percent drop compared to the same period of 2015, after the nation has been hammered by a spate of bombings blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants and by a diplomatic standoff with Russia which erupted more than a year ago.

The latest data has showed the number of Russians visiting Turkey has showed some recovery after bilateral ties between the two countries started to normalize. Tourism adds about $30 billion to gross domestic product (GDP) each year, and is likely to remain a drag.