The number of tourists visiting Turkey increased by 14.5 percent on year-on-year basis in the first half of 2017, Ministry of Culture and Tourism said Tuesday.

According to the ministry, 12.3 million people visited Turkey in the first six months of the year.

Nearly 3.5 million tourists arrived in June alone, a record 43.1 percent increase in comparison to the same month last year, the ministry said.

The largest number of foreign visitors came from Russia in the January-June 2017 period with a total of 1.7 million Russian tourists spent their holidays in Turkey. Germany came just below Russia in the list of foreign visitors coming to Turkey with 1.2 million tourists.

Meanwhile, arrivals from Georgia, a country with a population of nearly 4 million, accounted for more than 1 million tourists.

In June, the number of Russian tourists rose by 21.9 percent reaching 763,727 people.

The three most preferred destinations for foreign visitors in the first half of the year were Istanbul, Turkey's tourism capital Antalya, and western Edirne.

Istanbul hosted 4.39 million tourists in the first six months of 2017, while 3.27 million visited Antalya.