Tourists like lodging with homeowners
ANKARA - Anatolia News Agency
Mount Nemrut in southeastern Turkey is a popular tourist attraction. AA photo
A growing number of tourists visiting Turkey in 2011 chose to stay either with friends or relatives, according to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), which analyzed the growing trend among foreign tourists to purchase property in Turkey.Of the foreign tourists, 11.1 percent preferred to stay in their own homes in Turkey and 22.7 stayed with relatives or friends, meaning that one out of every three visitors to Turkey preferred staying in homes rather than hotels. Roughly 50 percent stayed in hotels and the remaining 4.6 percent stayed in rental accommodations.
Furthermore, one out of every 10 tourists was a retiree, according to the TÜİK findings. The data also found that most tourists came to Turkey for travel, entertainment, sports and cultural activities. About 57 percent came for travel, entertainment, sports and cultural activities while 10.6 percent came to visit friends and relatives, 6.3 percent came for work and 3.4 percent came for shopping.
In total, there were 30.4 million tourists to Turkey in 2011. About 27 million of these were foreigners, the remainder being Turks who lived abroad.