Turkish tourism broke all records between January and March 2018, as, according to data from the local Tourism and Culture Ministry, arrivals of foreign visitors grew by 34.9% reaching 5.13 million.
This means that during Q1 2018, 1.3 million more tourists visited Turkey compared to the same period in 2017.
An impressive increase of 34.8% was recorded in the arrivals of foreign tourists in Turkey during March following a rise of 31.6% in February and of 38.5% in January.
It should be noted that Turkey separates foreign tourists from Turkish nationals that live abroad and visit Turkey on a yearly basis.
If the latter are included, then the increase reaches an even more impressive 50.5%.
The arrivals of foreign tourists in Turkey, along with the arrivals of Turks living abroad, reached 38 million in 2017.
The recovery of Turkish tourism in all of its major source markets in the first quarter is evident below:
Germany + 36.28%
Britain + 42%
France + 32.4%
Italy + 38.3%
Saudi Arabia + 37.2%
China + 98%
Russia + 67.8%
USA + 16.6%
Greece + 16.2%
Bulgaria + 16%
At the same time, tourism income in Turkey increased by 31.3% and reached to $4 billion 425 million 237 thousand, during the first quarter of 2018.
While 76.1% of this income (excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures) was obtained from foreign visitors, 23.9% was obtained from Turkish citizens that reside abroad.
Visitors organise their travel individually or with package tours.
While individual expenditures reached $3 billion 984 million 962 thousand of the total tourism income, $ 440 million 275 thousand of tourism income was obtained through package tour expenditures.
The average expenditure of visitors was $ 723 per capita with the average expenditure of foreigners at $ 682 per capita and the average expenditure of Turkish residents abroad at$ 869 per capita.
Number of departing visitors increased by 26.4%
In the same period, the number of departing visitors increased by 26.4% compared to same quarter of previous year and reached to 6 million 122 thousand 182 persons. While 80.2% of visitors were foreigners (4,908,831 people) 19.8% of them were Turkish citizens from abroad (1,213,351 people).
Tourism expenditure increased by 26.1%
Tourism expenditure by Turkish citizens who travelled abroad, grew by 26.1% compared to same quarter of previous year and reached $ 1,079,008,000. From this, $ 842,27 million regarded individual expenditures and $ 236,73 million regarded package tour expenditures.
Number of Turkish citizens visited abroad increased by 9.1%
In Q1, the number of outbound Turkish citizens increased by 9.1% compared to same quarter of previous year and reached 2,070,534 people with an average expenditure of $ 521 per capita.
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