Ankara, Nov 22 (IANS): Turkey registered more than 4.8 million foreign visitor arrivals in October, up by 38.3 per cent year on year, official statistics showed.

In October, the top country of origin among foreign tourists is Russia, which sent nearly 768,000 visitors, down by 10.7 per cent from the previous month and 15.1 per cent year on year, reports Xinhua news agency citing the statistics from the Culture and Tourism Ministry.

Russia was closely followed by Germany, which sent more than 746,000 visitors.

The UK ranked the third with more than 388,000 visitors, the statistics further revealed.

The number of arriving foreign visitors in the January-October period this year increased by 88.14 per cent to 39 million compared to the same period last year, according to the Ministry.

For the number of visitors' nationalities during the period, Germans topped the chart with more than 5.27 million, Russians ranked second with more than 4.63 million, and British took the third with nearly 3.21 million.

Istanbul, Turkey's most populous city and a major tourist destination, attracted 33.76 per cent of all international visitors, while 30.81 per cent visited the southern city of Antalya.