The Turkish Statistical Institute announced the tourism statistics for the January-March period of this year.
Accordingly, tourism revenue increased by 32.3 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year. In the said period, tourism income was recorded as 8 billion 690 million 505 thousand dollars.
20.8 percent of tourism income was obtained from citizens residing abroad who visited the country. Visitors organized their travel by personal or package tour. 7 billion 503 million 255 thousand dollars of the expenditures made in this quarter was personal expenditures and 1 billion 187 million 249 thousand dollars was package tour expenditures.
The number of visitors departing from the country increased by 26.8 percent in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period of the previous year, reaching 8 million 181 thousand 566 people. 20.4 percent of the visitors were citizens residing abroad with 1 million 672 thousand 332 people.
The average spend per night of visitors departing from Turkey in this quarter was 84 dollars. It was seen that the average expenditure per night of citizens residing abroad was 69 dollars.
In the January-March period, sports, education and culture expenditures increased by 116.5 percent, package tour expenditures (the remaining share for Turkey) increased by 83.4 percent, and tour services expenditures increased by 82.1 percent on an annual basis.
In this quarter, visitors visited Turkey with 46.6% mostly for “travel, entertainment, sports and cultural activities”. “Visiting relatives and friends” took the second place with 32.4 percent, and “shopping” took the third place with 8.5 percent. Citizens residing abroad, on the other hand, came to the country mostly for “visiting relatives and friends” with 72.1 percent.
Tourism expenditure increased by 110.5 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year.
Tourism expenditure, which consists of the expenditures of citizens residing in the country and visiting other countries, increased by 110.5 percent in the first quarter of the year compared to the same quarter of the previous year and became 1 billion 400 million 108 thousand dollars. 1 billion 149 million 53 thousand dollars of this was personal and 251 million 55 thousand dollars was package tour expenditures.
In the said period, the number of citizens visiting abroad increased by 99 percent on an annual basis and reached 2 million 69 thousand 229 people. Their average expenditure per person was $677.
