Turkey: Domestic tourism spending on rise in Q2

By Tuba Sahin

ANKARA (AA) - Domestic tourism expenditures in Turkey soared 45.8% percent on an annual basis in the second quarter of this year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Thursday.

Residents spent 10.8 billion Turkish liras ($1.8 billion) on trips this April-June, up from 7.4 billion liras ($1.7 billion) from the same period last year.

TurkStat data showed that 15.7 million residents took domestic trips in the second quarter, up 4.2% year-on-year.

The average expenditure per trip was 556 Turkish liras (some $94) between April and June.

"Domestic trips with one or more than one overnights increased 2.7% compared to the same quarter of 2018 to reach 19.3 million trips," it said.

The top purpose for trips was visiting relatives, accounting for a 64.9% share, followed by travel, leisure, and holiday with 26.6%, and health at third with 3.4%.