THE largest number of foreign visitors came to Turkey from Russia in the first five months of the year.

While the number of tourists coming from Russia was 928,376 in five months, the country was followed by Georgia, Germany and Iran.

According to the provisional data of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, a total of 8,762,509 visitors came to Turkey from more than 100 countries, including Russia, Germany, Iraq, Venezuela, Singapore, the Netherlands, Australia and Mexico, from January 2017 to May 2017.

The number of foreign visitors in Turkey soared by 5.55 percent year-on-year.

In terms of nationalities, Russian tourists regained their leading position after two years. A total of 928,376 Russian tourists visited Turkey in the first five months of the year.

Russia was followed by Georgia with 874,955 tourists, Germany with 863,572 tourists, Iran with 774,010 tourists and Bulgaria with 638,409 tourists. A total of 396,515 people visited Turkey from the U.K., 316,252 from Ukraine, 243,421 from Azerbaijan, 239,996 from Iraq, 205,931 from the Netherlands and 204,806 from Greece from January to May.

Israel, Saudi Arabia, France, Romania and the U.S. were among the countries from where more than 100,000 tourists came to Turkey.

Russians constituted 10.59 percent of all tourists coming to Turkey in the same period, while Georgians and Germans constituted 9.99 percent and 9.86 of them, respectively.

The number of Russian tourists coming from Russia in the first five months of the year skyrocketed by 571.86 percent compared to the same period last year. A total of 138,181 Russian nationals had visited Turkey from January 2016 to May 2016.