Turkey's tourism income increases in second quarter

By Jeyhun Aliyev

ANKARA

Turkey's total tourism income increased by 30.1 percent, year-on-year, reaching $7.04 billion in the second quarter of 2018, according to Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat)'s report on Tuesday.

"While 84.7 percent of this income [excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures] was obtained from foreign visitors, 15.3 percent was obtained from citizens resident abroad," TurkStat said in a statement.

Turkey welcomed more than 11 million tourists in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 24.9 percent from the same quarter in 2017.

The report showed 89 percent of visitors were foreigners with 9.85 million persons, 11 percent of them were Turkish citizens resident abroad with 1.21 million persons, TurkStat said.

According to TurkStat, the number of Turkish citizens traveling abroad in the second quarter fell by 4.4 percent over the same period and reached almost 2.2 million.

The number of foreigners visiting Turkey rose by 28.5 percent, year-on-year, in June, reaching 5.1 million persons, the Culture and Tourism Ministry revealed Tuesday.

Russians made up almost 22 percent of foreign visitors, followed by Germans at around 10 percent, and British citizens at nearly 7 percent.

Number of foreigners visiting Turkey during January to June period climbed by 28.92 percent, compared to the same period last year, the data showed.

The total number of Turkish citizens resident abroad visiting the country also went up by 21.64 percent during first six month, year-on-year.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey expected 40 million tourists by end of 2018.

“We expect $32 billion tourism revenue, and we are proceeding quickly towards this target,” Erdogan added.

Mehmet Ersoy, minister of culture and tourism, also said nearly 16 million foreigners visited Turkey in the first six-month period of the current year.

While Turkey hosted 36.8 million foreigners in 2014 and 36.3 million in 2015, the figure decreased sharply to 25.3 million in 2016 but rose again to 32.4 million last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute.

Turkey targets 50 million tourists and $50 billion in income by 2023, according to private sector representatives and officials.

The next quarterly data of TurkStat on tourism statistics is due on Oct. 31.