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Türkiye has moved further up the global tourism league after Euromonitor International’s 2025 Top 100 City Destinations Index placed Istanbul and Antalya among the 10 most visited cities in the world, while also confirming the country’s growing weight in wider tourism competitiveness.
According to the Top 100 City Destinations Index 2025, Istanbul ranked fifth worldwide with 19.7 million international visitors, while Antalya took eighth place with 18.6 million.
With two cities inside the global top 10 by foreign arrivals, Türkiye strengthened its presence in the most competitive segment of world tourism.
Bangkok led the visitor ranking with 30.3 million international arrivals, followed by Hong Kong, London and Makao in the top four places.
The report underlined that Türkiye is rapidly moving towards a leadership position in tourist volume across Europe and the Mediterranean region.
The study linked Istanbul’s rise to a broad mix of factors, from gastronomy and culture and arts events to international organizations and the impact of digital promotion.
Antalya’s position, on the other hand, was associated with consistently strong demand for its holiday infrastructure, the role of sports tourism and its facilities described as being in line with global standards.
Euromonitor International is described in the report as a leading reference source for the global tourism sector, with over 50 years of experience analyzing the performance of countries and cities.
Its Top 100 City Destinations Index is presented not only as a ranking of visitor numbers but also as a broader comparison of how cities perform across multiple tourism-related dimensions.
The index evaluates destinations on international arrivals together with sustainability, tourism infrastructure, economic performance, culture and arts capacity, and health and safety indicators.
For that reason, the report is widely treated in the industry as one of the key global data sets used by governments, airlines, hotel groups, and investment funds when they draw up their tourism strategies and investment plans.
In this context, the fact that Türkiye’s major cities are now placed higher in the index is framed as evidence not only of increasing visitor numbers but also of a tourism strategy that is working across several structural indicators.
The same Euromonitor study also published a separate ranking of the “world's most attractive cities,” which measures overall appeal independently from visitor volume.
This list is based on 56 criteria covering sustainability, culture, economic performance, health and safety, and related factors.
Paris retained first place on this attractiveness index. The report associated the French capital’s performance with the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral and the impact of Paris Saint-Germain’s Champions League victory on sports-related tourism demand. Madrid came second, followed by Tokyo in third place, Rome in fourth and Milan in fifth.
Amsterdam and Barcelona were reported to have moved up the list, while London fell back to 18th place, which the report linked to a weaker performance in sustainability indicators.
Taken as a whole, Euromonitor International’s index showed that Türkiye was among the countries recording the fastest momentum in tourism in 2025. The presence of both Istanbul and Antalya in the top 10 most visited cities was presented as a sign that the country’s policies in culture, events and destination management are finding a robust response in international markets.
The results also indicated that Türkiye has not only increased the number of visitors it welcomes, but has also built up a more stable and recognisable brand in global tourism, which the report described as being reinforced by the 2025 findings.
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