BRITISH tourists are still the most popular foreign tourists flocking to Didim and Bodrum, even though overall foreign arrivals plunged by 46 percent.

Mugla Province, which includes Bodrum and Dalaman airports serving the main resorts, saw a near halving of tourists flowing through in the first six months of this year compared to 2015.

Local media reported that the number of domestic and foreign tourists up to June fell to 613,923 tourists. Last year over the same period, there were 1,015,990 domestic and foreign tourists.

Statistics from the Tourism Directorate said the most foreign arrivals up to June 2016 were

British with 297,379 tourist arrivals.

They were followed by:

Germans, 60,609;

The Netherlands, 50,151:

Ukraine, 30,167;

Belgium, 17,047;

Poland, 16,585.

The remaining 141,985 tourists came from various other countries.

There was also a decrease in the number of domestic tourists. In the first six months of last year, 41,289 domestic tourists while in the same period this year that number fell to 40,830.

The majority of foreign tourists coming to Mugla came via Dalaman and Milas-Bodrum Airports.

A total of 466,982 foreign tourists came from the international airport, with 106,111 opting for the sea border gates.

It was reported that after a strong nine-day Bayram holiday from the domestic sector, hotel occupancy had fallen by about 30 percent as holidaymakers headed home.