Tourism income rises by 4.7 percent in Q3

ANKARA

Turkey’s tourism income increased to $11.5 billion in the third quarter. DHA Photo

Turkey’s tourism income increased to $11.5 billion in the third quarter of this year, a rise of 4.7 percent from the same period of the previous year, the Turkish Statistics Agency (TÜİK) revealed yesterday.

While 79.6 percent of the income was obtained from foreign visitors, 20.4 percent came from Turkish citizens resident abroad.

The average expenditure per visitor was $721 in the quarter. While the average expenditure of foreigners was $667 per capita, the average expenditure of Turkish citizens resident abroad was $1,001 per capita.
Tourism expenditure increased by 15.4 percent from the third quarter of 2012.

The number of Turkish citizens traveling abroad increased by 49.9 percent from the same quarter of the previous year, reaching around 2 million. Average expenditure for these trips was $592 per capita.
The Syrian civil war has led to a remarkable increase in the number of Syrians coming to Turkey. However, most of these arrivals and departures are not for tourism purposes, the TÜİK said.

The agency uses the border figures of the General Directorate of Security in the context of the studies on tourism statistics. As these figures include all kinds of arrivals and departures, it was decided that starting from the third quarter of 2013, calculations should be made by removing the departures of Syrians from some southeastern border gates from the figures of the General Directorate of Security.