The number of foreign tourists arriving in Türkiye from January through October of this year has reached 44.2 million, the country’s culture and tourism minister said Friday.
"The number of foreign tourists who preferred Türkiye during their holidays increased by 11.58% in these 10 months compared to the same period of the previous year," Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told an event in the Mediterranean gem of Antalya.
Arrivals rose to 39.6 million recorded from January-October of last year, more than double the nearly 21.1 million tourists who visited Türkiye in the same period of 2021.
In October alone, foreign arrivals rose 3.83% compared to a year ago to nearly 5 million, the Culture and Tourism Ministry data showed. It followed a record 5.8 million registered in September.
Tourism is a critical source of revenue for Türkiye as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government focus on reducing the current account deficit to tackle stubborn inflation.
Combined with Turkish citizens living abroad, the number of visitors rose to 50.2 million in January-October, Ersoy said, stressing that Türkiye was coming to the end of another buoyant year in tourism.
Ersoy reported that they targeted $55.6 billion in tourism revenue at the beginning of the year, but they were very close to the target despite the devastating earthquakes that struck the country’s southeastern region in early February, the election in May and Israel's attacks on Gaza.
Last year’s complete rebound from the pandemic fallout saw the number of tourists near a record, generating all-time high revenues and prompting the government to raise its annual estimates. The government anticipated 60 million foreign arrivals this year.
"We have reached $42 billion in tourism revenues in the January-September period. We are pleased to see that we have achieved an increase of 20% compared to the revenue of $35 billion that we reached in the same period last year," said Ersoy.
This year’s momentum has been driven by an influx of holidaymakers from Europe, particularly Germany and the United Kingdom, besides arrivals from Russia, mainly due to flight restrictions imposed by Western nations over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.
About 5.8 million Russians arrived in the first 10 months, marking a 26% year-over-year increase, to top the list among nations, followed closely by Germany at 5.7 million and the United Kingdom at 3.6 million, the data showed.
In October, Germany unseated Russia with 860,635 visitors, a 15.3% year-over-year increase. Some 672,198 Russians arrived last month, a decline of 12.5%, while the U.K. ranked third with 441,449, rising 13.8% from the 10-month period of 2022.
Ersoy said Türkiye managed to achieve a notable improvement in the per capita nightly expenditure of tourists, which he said they expect to end the year at $100, compared to $65 in 2017 and $89 in 2022.
Foreign arrivals surged 80.33% to 44.6 million in 2022, just shy of the peak of 45.1 million in 2019.
Income climbed 53.4% to a record high of nearly $46.3 billion as the lingering effects of the pandemic dissipated and Russian arrivals skyrocketed after Moscow invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.
Tourism contributes about 10% to Türkiye’s gross domestic product (GDP). In addition, around 1.7 million people worked in accommodation and food services in 2022 – about 5% of total employment.
Ersoy said Türkiye was in the "super league" of the world in tourism.
"Our goal is much bigger for 2028. We will raise the bar in tourism revenue to the level of $100 billion," he said. The government sees foreign arrivals reaching 90 million in 2028.