Domestic tourism expenditures up 97 last year

Households’ domestic tourism expenditures have increased by 96.7 percent last year from 2021 to stand at 114.3 billion Turkish Liras (around $5.9 billion), according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK).

Individual expenditures constituted 90.6 percent, or 103.5 billion liras, of all expenditures and package tours accounted for another 9.4 percent, or 10.8 billion liras.

Domestic travelers made a total of 52.3 million trips last year, down 0.8 percent from 2021, while average expenditure per trip was 2,185 liras, up from 1,101 in the previous year.

The share of transport in total expenditure was 30.7 percent, food and drink accounted for 30.5 percent, while accommodation’s share was 13 percent, TÜİK data showed.

The primary purpose of traveling was “visiting relatives” at 65.6 percent, followed by “travel, leisure, holiday” at 22.1 percent and “health” at 5.3 percent.

According to the number of overnight stays by type of accommodation, domestic visitors stayed mostly at the “house of a friend or relative,” at 67.7 percent.

While “own house” took second place at 17.2 percent, “hotel” took third place at 8.1 percent.

In the fourth quarter of 2022, domestic tourism expenditures rose by 65.8 percent to 19.1 billion liras from a year ago, while the number of domestic travelers fell by 14.9 percent on an annual basis to 7.6 million people, TÜİK said.

Eid Holiday boost

The long Eid al-Fitr holiday is giving a strong boost to domestic tourism this year. Families merge a short school break with the Eid al-Fitr holiday to go on a long vacation this week.

Holiday bookings, consequently, rose as much as 45 percent compared with last year, representatives from the tourism industry said.

Holidaymakers will mostly travel to Antalya and popular resort towns on the Aegean coast for the Eid holiday.

Hotel occupancy rates in major holiday destinations climbed to 70 percent.

In Antalya, prices for a three-night stay range between 8,500 liras and 9,000 liras, while one-night stay per person in the popular resort town of Bodrum costs between 2,000 liras to up to 20,000 liras.

Foreign holidaymakers always arrive in Bodrum earlier than domestic tourists, said Alişir Şahin, deputy chair of the Bodrum Hoteliers’ Association.

“Currently, demand from local travelers is not very strong. Locals are usually ‘last-minute’ vacationers and spread their holidays to three months during the summer.”

Flights from Russia will start in May, said Ömer Faruk Dengiz, the president of the Bodrum Hoteliers’ Association. He added that they initially targeted to welcome 1.5 million foreign tourists this year.