Türkiye's tourism income grows 32.3% in 1st quarter

By Tuba Ongun

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye's tourism income soared by 32.3% from a year earlier to $8.7 billion in the first quarter of 2023, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) reported on Friday.

More than one-fifth, or 20.8%, of tourism income was generated by visits of Turkish nationals residing abroad, the TurkStat data.

Türkiye welcomed 8.2 million visitors in January-March, a surge of 26.8% year-on-year. Some 20.4%, or 1.7 million, were Turkish citizens living in other countries.

The average spending per night of each individual visitor amounted to $84 dollars over the three months, with visitors' average total expenditure at $1,062 per capita.

Sports, education, and culture spending soared by 116.5%, while package tour expenditures ballooned by 83.4% and tour services expenditures by 82.1%.

In the first quarter, the number of Turkish citizens who visited other countries more than doubled from last year, with the figure nearing 2.1 million. Their expenditures reached $1.4 billion in the three-month period.