The Black Sea province of Trabzon welcomed 1,402,155 visitors in the first nine months of 2026, a 14% rise on the same period last year and a record for the region, according to figures shared on Oct. 12 by Trabzon lawmaker Adil Karaismailoğlu.
Karaismailoğlu, an AK Party deputy who chairs parliament’s Public Works, Zoning, Transport and Tourism Commission, said visitor numbers were up by 173,646 from 1,228,509 in January-September 2025.
Foreign visitors made up the majority, at 735,012, or roughly 52% of the total, while 667,143 visitors were from within Türkiye.
Gulf demand dominates
Saudi Arabia was by far the largest foreign source market, sending 400,354 visitors in the nine months, about 54% of all foreign arrivals and more than nine times the number from second-placed Iraq. Iraq followed with 42,885 visitors and Jordan with 34,466.
Arrivals from Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan also increased. Visitor numbers from Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Iran fell, a decline Karaismailoğlu attributed to tensions and war conditions in the Gulf region. He noted that international developments can be decisive for tourism flows.
Strong September
September was a particularly strong month. Trabzon received 190,943 visitors, including 112,137 foreigners, up 30% from 86,430 a year earlier, and 78,806 domestic visitors, up 19% from 66,149.
Karaismailoğlu credited direct flights linking Trabzon with 14 countries for supporting the growth, saying the province was continuing its rise in tourism.
Trabzon, known for the Sumela Monastery and its green highland plateaus, has become one of the main Black Sea destinations for visitors from Arab countries. The latest figures show that market still underpins its tourism, even as some Gulf source countries have been hit by the regional conflict and newer markets in Central Asia and Russia have grown.
Sources
Photo: Bjørn Christian Tørrissen / CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
