Turkey's tourism revenue totaled $22bn last year

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - Turkey's tourism income declined steeply to $22.1 billion in 2016, official figures showed on Tuesday.

The country's tourism revenue last year decreased by 29.7 percent compared to 2015, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

In 2016, Turkey welcomed 31.3 million visitors, marking a 24.6 percent decrease from the previous year.

The TurkStat report showed nearly 20 percent of the visitors, around six million people, were Turkish citizens residing abroad.

"While 72.8 percent of this income [excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures] was obtained from foreign visitors, 27.2 percent was obtained from citizens resident abroad," TurkStat said.

Visitors' average expenditure per capita was $705 while the average expenditure by foreigners was $633 per capita.

Average expenditure of Turkish citizens resident abroad was $978 per capita, according to the official report.

TurkStat also revealed that the number of Turkish citizens traveling abroad last year decreased by 9.8 percent compared to 2015 and declined to 7.9 million people; these made an average expenditure of $640 per capita.

Last year's tourism expenditure, which is the expenditure of Turkish citizens resident in Turkey and visiting abroad, also decreased by 11.4 percent compared to 2015 and declined to around $5 billion.