More than 6 mln tourists visit Türkiye in January-March

ANKARA

Around 6.2 million foreign tourists visited Türkiye in the January-March period, up from 4.9 million foreign arrivals in the first quarter of 2022, the Culture and Tourism Ministry has announced.

In March alone, Türkiye welcomed 2.34 million foreign visitors, which marked a 12.3 percent increase from a year ago.

Russians topped the list of foreign holidaymakers. Some 773,000 Russian nationals vacationed in Türkiye in January-March, up from 361,000 in the same period of 2022.

Bulgarians constituted the second largest group at 523,000, followed by Germans at 505,000 and Iranians at 472,000.

Meanwhile, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) reported on April 28 that the country’s tourism revenues increased by 32.3 percent in January-March compared with the same period of 2022 to stand at $8.69 billion.

Per capita expenditure on average was $1,062, rising 4.3 percent from $1,018 in the first quarter of 2022.

Average expenditure per night also increased by 2.8 percent on an annual basis to $84. The average expenditure per night by Turkish citizens residing abroad was $69.

“While individual expenditures constituted $7.5 billion of the total tourism income, $1.18 billion came from package tour expenditures in the first quarter,” TÜİK said.

Sports, education and culture expenditure by visitors leaped nearly 117 percent in the January-March from a year ago. Package tour expenditure grew 83.4 percent and tour services expenditure increased by 82.1 percent, TÜİK data showed.

Some 46.6 percent of the visitors came to Türkiye for “travel, entertainment, sportive and cultural activities,” followed by visiting relatives and friends at 32.4 percent. Shopping ranked third at 8.5 percent.

The number of Turkish citizens visiting foreign countries increased by 99 percent in the first quarter year-on-year to 2.1 million, while their total tourism expenditure soared 111 percent to $1.4 billion.

The average expenditure per capita for Turkish travelers was $677, up from $640 in January-March last year.

In January, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said that Türkiye aims to generate $56 billion in tourism revenues and attract 60 million foreign tourists in 2023. He noted that 51.4 million foreigners visited the country last year, and tourism revenues amounted to $46.3 billion.