Tourism income jumps 22 percent to $14B in Q3

ISTANBUL-Anadolu Agency

Turkey's tourism income jumped by nearly a quarter this July-September to $14.03 billion, the country's statistical authority said on Oct. 31.

The country's tourism revenue soared 22 percent in the third quarter, up from $11.5 billion in the same period last year, Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) announced.

"While 82.1 percent of this income (excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures) was obtained from foreign visitors, 17.9 percent was obtained from citizens residing abroad," it said.

Individual expenditures constituted nearly $9.9 billion of the total tourism income in the three-month period, while some $4.1 billion of the revenues came from package tour expenditures, official figures showed.

The country welcomed some 21.6 million visitors in the same period, a 15 percent rise on a yearly basis -- 85.3 percent foreign tourists and 14.7 percent Turkish citizens living abroad.

TÜİK said visitors' average expenditures were $649 per capita, as foreign visitors spent $623 per capita and Turkish citizens spent $789.

Food and beverage took the lion share from visitors' expenses over the same period with around $2.66 billion -- foreigners spent almost $1.95 billion and Turkish visitors has a share of $713 million.

International transportation, clothes, accommodation, and domestic transportation followed the food and beverage item with $1.83 billion, $1.45 billion, $1.39 billion, and $1.07 billion, respectively.

The primary visiting purpose of foreigners was travel, entertainment, sports, and culture with 59 percent as their top accommodation choice was hotels/motels/pensions with 84.5 million overnights.

The primary travel reason for Turkish visitors living abroad was visiting relatives and friends with almost 44.5 percent, while they mostly preferred private houses during their trips in Turkey, around 21.7 million overnights.

The institute also said that Turkey's tourism expenditure -- which is the expenditure of Turkish citizens resident in Turkey and visiting abroad -- saw a 1.8 percent annual increase to $1.23 billion in the July-September period.

"In this quarter number of Turkish citizens visiting abroad increased by 30.2 percent compared to the same quarter of previous year," TÜİK said.

Around 2.95 million Turkish citizens traveled abroad and spent $417 per capita on average from July to September.

Meanwhile, in the first nine months of 2019, Turkey's tourism income totaled over $26.6 billion, up by 16.15 percent from $22.9 billion in the same period
last year.

Foreigners' expenses constituted $22.2 billion of the total amount while Turkish visitors living abroad spent around $4.4 billion in the January-September period.

While the average expenditure of foreigners was $657, Turkish people spent averagely $463 in the same period.

Turkey's tourism expenditure also reached $3.37 billion over the same period, according to the official data.