Turkey’s tourism income has decreased by over 70 percent

* Photo: Pexels

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), Turkey's government agency commissioned with producing official statistics on the country, released its "Tourism Statistics" for the third quarter of 2020 today (October 30).

According to the Institute's official statistics covering the July-August-September 2020 period, Turkey's tourism income decreased by 71.2 percent and declined to 4 billion 44 million 356 thousand dollars.

While 71.6 percent of this income (excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures) was obtained from foreign nationals, 28.4 percent was reportedly obtained from citizens resident abroad.

Visitors organize their travel individually or with a package tour. While individual expenditures constituted 3 billion 97 million 691 thousand dollars of the total tourism income, 946 million 665 thousand dollars of tourism income was obtained by package tour expenditures.

All expenditure types decreased

In this quarter, all expenditure types decreased compared to the same quarter of 2019. Sports, education, culture expenditure decreased by 82.6 percent, tour services expenditure decreased by 78.8 percent and package tour expenditure (share of Turkey) dropped by 77.2 percent.

According to the TurkStat, the average expenditure per night was 61 dollars in this three-month period. In this quarter, while average expenditure per night of the foreigners who stayed overnight was 70 dollars, average expenditure per night of Turkey's citizens resident abroad was 46 dollars.

Number of departing visitors decreased

In this quarter, the number of departing visitors decreased by 74.1 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and declined to 5 million 604 thousand 155 persons. While 79 percent of visitors were foreign with 4 million 430 thousand 53 persons, 21 percent of them were citizens of Turkey resident abroad with 1 million 174 thousand 102 persons.

In this quarter, foreign visitors visited Turkey mostly for "travel, entertainment, sportive and cultural activities" with 74.9 percent.

The secondary purpose of visit was "visiting relatives and friends" with 15.8 percent and the third was "business (conferences, meetings, assignments etc.)" with 3.3 percent. Citizens of Turkey resident abroad visited mostly for "visiting relatives and friends" with 65.4 percent.

Tourism expenditure decreased by 89.8 percent

Tourism expenditure, which is the expenditure of the citizens of Turkey resident in Turkey and visited abroad, decreased by 89.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and declined to 126 million 79 thousand dollars. While 119 million 604 thousand dollars of total expenditures was individual expenditures, 6 million 476 thousand dollars of tourism expenditures was package tour expenditures.

In this quarter, the number of citizens of Turkey who visited abroad decreased by 93.1 percent when compared to the same quarter of the previous year and declined to 203 thousand 223. Average expenditure was 620 dollars per capita. (SD)