Turkey’s tourism revenue sees strong recovery in second quarter

ANKARA

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Turkey’s tourism revenue has shown strong recovery in the second quarter of the year after a tough period amid a series of problems, the official data showed on July 31. 

In the second quarter of the year, the country’s tourism revenue rose to $5.4 billion with an 8.7 percent year-on-year increase, according to data from the Turkish Statistic Institute (TÜİK). 

The number of foreign arrivals into Turkey surged by 16.3 percent to 2.89 million in May, with a significant increase being seen in the number of Russian tourists visiting the country. 

Arrivals from Europe, however, continued to decline in May, as around 1.1 million Europeans visited Turkey in May, marking a year-on-year decrease of around 20 percent, the tourism ministry data showed in late June.

According to TÜİK data, the average expenditure of visitors was $611 per capita in the second quarter.

In this quarter, while the average expenditure of the foreigners was $570 per capita, the average expenditure of the Turkish citizens who reside abroad was $845 per capita.

The number of departing visitors increased by 18.3 percent in the second quarter compared to the same period of 2016 and rose to 8.9 million, according to TÜİK data. 

While some 86.6 percent of visitors were foreigners, the remaining 13.4 percent were Turkish citizens who reside abroad.

In this quarter, the number of Turkish citizens who had traveled abroad increased by 12.7 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and reached 2.3 million. Their average expenditure was $604 per capita, according to the TÜİK data.

Turkey’s tourism revenue regressed to $3.4 billion in the first quarter of the year with a 17.1 percent year-on-year decrease.