AYDIN Province – the county home of Didim – has witnessed an increase in tourists for the first six months of 2015 compared to the same period last year.

Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Nuri Aktakka said the first six months of 2015, saw 2.7 million tourists arrive in Didim, Kusadasi and other tourism ho spots. This figure compared to just 2.5 million over the same period last year.

Aktakka said: “Lately, Aydin has been attracting more tourists and is increasing in interest. In this sense, the occupancy rate of a hotel was 92 percent last year but rose to 96 percent this year.”

Aydin was fifth in the league of most visited places in Turkey, behind Istanbul, Antalya, Mugla and Izmir

He added: “We expect 6 million visitors to come to our province in total by the end of 2015. The number of tourists in the coming years with our completion of our efforts to diversify the city’s tourism will also further increase.”

He said that 182,000 tourists had come through the port of Kusadasi via cruise lines compared to 157,000 last year.

The peak of tourism activity remains July and August, with Germans, British, Dutch and Romanians being among the most popular tourists to visit.

He was also hopeful that the number of visitors to Aydin’s historical sites would also increase this year, particularly during the autumn.