According to information provided by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, more than 3.67 million people visited Turkey in the first quarter of this year, a 15.5 percent increase from last year’s January-March figure.

This performance encouraged officials, although such a spike was fully expected as almost all commentators previously agreed ongoing uncertainties due to popular upheavals in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) would affect foreigners’ choices when deciding upon a vacation -- with more people preferring Turkey in the region. Tourism experts contend that such a shift in people’s choices will have a positive impact on the Turkish tourism industry in the long term; moreover, a visa deal signed with Russia is also expected to substantially contribute to the number of tourists coming to Turkey. Under the deal, the citizens of the two nations started to enjoy visa-free travel to each other’s country as of April 17, and an additional 1 million Russian tourists are expected to come to Turkey in 2011. Of foreigners who visited Turkey in the January-March period this year, Germans took the lead as Europe’s most populous nation sent 537,017 visitors. Iran followed Germany with 478,689 of its nationals.