12 million foreigners in the first five months of 2018, the Culture and Tourism Ministry announced on Friday.

According to the ministry, the figure rose by 30.8 percent on a yearly basis, up from 8.8 million in January-May last year.

Most visited is Istanbul, Turkey’s largest city by population. Istanbul received nearly 4.9 million in the five-month period.  The Mediterranean resort city Antalya came in second, with 2.64 million foreign visitors.

Turkey’s top foreign visitors are Russia, which took first place with 12.1 percent ( 1.4 million visitors — over the same period), followed by Germany (9.7 percent) and Iran (8.55 percent).

According to official data, air travel was the preferred means of transport, with 11.7 million travelers, while 4.5 million used roads and around 375,000 came by sea.