Turkey hosted a record number of visitors and its tourism income reached a new record high in 2019, the country’s statistical authority announced on Friday.
In 2019, the number of travelers visiting Turkey increased by 13.7% compared to the previous year and reached to 51 million 860 thousand 42. While 86.2% of visitors was foreign with 44 million 712 thousand 970 persons, 13.8% of them was Turkish citizens resident abroad with 7 million 147 thousand 72 persons.
Tourism income in 2019 increased by 17.0% and reached to $ 34 billion 520 million 332 thousand compared to the previous year. While individual expenditures constituted $ 25 billion 355 million 577 thousand of the total tourism income, $ 9 billion 164 million 755 thousand of tourism income was obtained by package tour expenditures.
In the fourth quarter which is October, November and December months of 2019 tourism income increased by 20.6% and reached to $ 7 billion 885 million 568 thousand. While 83.3% of this income (excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures) was obtained from foreign visitors, 16.7% was obtained from citizens resident abroad.
Visitors organized their travel individually or with package tour. While individual expenditures constituted $ 5 billion 804 million 853 thousand of the total tourism income, $ 2 billion 80 million 715 thousand of tourism income was obtained by package tour expenditures.
In this quarter, according to rate of change of expenditures compared to same quarter of the previous year, the highest increases were in package tour (share of Turkey) and tour services expenditures. In this year the highest annual increases were in package tour (share of Turkey) and health expenditures.
In this quarter while average expenditure per night of the foreigners who stayed overnight was $ 73, average expenditure per night of Turkish citizens resident abroad was $ 35.
In this year, while average expenditure per night for total overnight visitors was $ 68, the average expenditure per night of foreigners was $ 73, average expenditure per night of Turkish citizens resident abroad was $ 50.
