Turkish Statistical Institute says, the country’s tourism income amounted to USD 5.45 billion in January-March(Photo: Go Turkiye)
Turkiye’s tourism revenues nearly tripled in the second quarter, ended June 30, while the number of foreign tourists arriving in the country surged close to 2019 levels, according to data released by the Turkiye Tourism Ministry. The better than expected numbers come as a shot in the arm for the government and the economy, which has been fighting sustained inflation and currency devaluation on the long road to recovery from the coronavirus-induced slump for an important sector of the economy, which also earns the much-needed foreign currency.
Turkiye says its tourism revenues rose to USD 8.72 billion in the second quarter, up 190 pc from the second quarter of 2021. The country attracted over 16.4 million overseas tourists in the first half foreign visitors in the first half of this year, a growth of 185.7 pc over the corresponding period of 2021, according to official data.
Germany remained its largest source market as Germans accounted for over 2 million visitors in the January-June period, a four-fold growth from first half of 2021, according to the Culture and Tourism Ministry.
Next on the list were tourists from Russia, with 1.5 million, Britons with 1.3 million, and Bulgarians with 1.2 million in the first six months of 2022.
Turkiye’s commercial capital and the largest city in the country, Istanbul, remained the top tourist draw, receiving as many as 41.3 pc of all foreign visitors, translating into 6.8 million tourists in the first half of the ongoing year.
Second most favourite place for visitors from overseas was the renowned Turkish resort city of Antalya that took 24.7 pc or more than 4 million tourists. Edirne in northwestern Turkey, bordering both Bulgaria and Greece, followed with a 10.7 pc share or 1.8 million visitors.
Economists and tourism experts say that one of the factors that may have contributed to the growth in tourism is the weak Turkish Lira, which fell 44 pc against the USD last year and has fallen another 27 pc since the beginning of the year 2022, making Turkiye a very attractive place for foreign tourists, even the budget travellers.
Encouraged by the numbers of the first half, Turkiye’s Tourism and Culture Minister Mehmet Ersoy has revised the targets for his team upwards, saying that he aimed for USD 37 billion in tourism revenues and attracting 47 million tourists this year, up from USD 35 billion and 45 million visitors, which had been set by him last year. This is a sharp growth of almost 100 pc from the tourism receipts of 2021 that stood at USD 24.5 billion.
Sustained performance through the year
The first half performance has come on the back of a strong growth that Turkiye has registered throughout the year, with a very robust rise in tourism revenues as well as visitor numbers in the first quarter of the year as well.
According to Turkiye government data, its total tourism revenues had risen 122 pc in the first quarter of 2022 on annualised basis, while the tourist numbers had risen by 129 pc in the same period, ending March 31, 2022.
The Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) said that the country’s tourism income amounted to USD 5.45 billion in January-March, while the number of foreign arrivals was 2.1 million.
However, a weak Lira also led to a drop in per capita spending that was USD 845 in the first quarter, down from USD 943 in the same period of last year. For the first half of 2022, a similar drop could be expected as the Lira has yielded further ground to the greenback since April 1. However, in an encouraging news, the data says that average per night spending of visitors in Q1 2022 was USD 68, slightly higher than USD 66 a year ago.
TÜİK data goes on to say that about 76.5 pc of the tourism revenues were generated from foreign tourists, excluding GSM roaming and marina services expenditures, while the remaining 23.5 pc were from Turkish citizens residing abroad.
