Tourism income rises to $34.3 bln: Agency

ANKARA

Tourists who visited Turkey in 2014 spent an average of $828 per capita in 2014; $775 by foreigners per capita and $1,130 by Turkish citizens who live abroad. DHA Photo

Turkey’s tourism income increased by 6.2 percent to $34.3 billion in 2014, the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) announced on Jan. 30. 

However, income from tourism fell to $7.67 billion in the last quarter of 2014, down 1.3 percent from the same period of 2013. 

The total number of visitors increased by 5.6 percent from the previous year, to 41 million in 2014, according to the data. Around 86.6 percent of the people visiting the country were foreigners, while 13.4 percent were Turkish citizens who reside abroad.

Of the total income, around 81.5 percent was earned from foreign visitors’ spending in the country and the remaining 18.5 percent was from the other groups’ spending. 

Tourists visiting Turkey spent an average of $828 per capita in 2014; $775 by foreigners per capita and $1,130 by Turkish citizens who live abroad. 

Tourism Minister Ömer Çelik said on Jan. 23 there are around 5 million Turkish citizens who are residents of Europe, but visit Turkey each year.