Türkiye targets $125 bln in service export revenues this year

ISTANBUL

Türkiye aims to boost its revenues from service exports to $125 billion this year, says Ahmet Bolat, the head of the Services Exporters’ Association (HİB).

“We are expecting a strong contribution to export revenues from the travel, tourism, education and health services,” said Bolat, who is also the chairman of Turkish Airlines’ Board and Executive Committee.

The services sector’s exports rose by 47 percent in 2022 from the previous year to $90.3 billion.

The size of the global services export is around $6 trillion, Türkiye’s share in this figure is small, Bolat said, noting that the U.K.’s service exports amounted to $500 billion.

“But we are making a good and fast progress. That’s why we set the export revenues target as $125 billion for 2023,” he added.

The travel services’ share in Türkiye’s total services exports is around $41.2 billion, followed by the freight sector at $20 billion and passenger transportation at $16.6 billion, according to Bolat.

The software and IT services’ export revenues amounted to $1.1 billion, while revenues from health, insurance and pension were $1.9 billion and 1.8 billion, respectively.

Revenues from education services stood at $1 billion, he said, noting that Türkiye has the potential to boost its export revenues/

“Recently, we visited Mexico where officials told us that per capita tourist expenditure was $3,000. This is also the case with other countries. However, in Türkiye, per capita expenditure is well below $1,000. It is around $850. We need to increase this figure above $1,000.”

If Türkiye attracts 80 million tourists in three years and more than doubles per capital expenditure, revenues may climb to $200 billion, he added.

Revenues from TV series and movies grew 175 percent to $527 million, said Mehmet Fatih Aksoy from the board of the HİB.

“Interest in Turkish series is strong in countries such as Spain. We are both seeking to diversify our markets and to increase revenues. Revenue from TV series is only around $1 million per episode. We will focus on Japan and China,” he said.

Türkiye’s services export revenues stood at $43.2 billion, climbing to $62 billion in 2014, according to data from the HİB.

Revenues rose to $63 billion in 2019 but declined to $35 billion in the following year when the COVID-19 pandemic hit the economy across the world.