Though there is a rise in international tourists’ visit in Turkey, the tourism income is lowering down as the dollar rises.
While Turkey had hosted more than 41.6 million tourists and raked in revenue of $31.4 billion in 2015, in 2016 the number of tourists dropped to 31.4 million and income to $22.1 billion — for a loss of around $9.3 billion compared with the year before.
Overall from 2008 to 2017, the number of tourists rose, but revenue dropped by $3.31 billion because the value of Turkey’s currency crashed by 264%.
In 2017, the Turkish currency suffered another sharp decline, falling to 3.65 liras to the dollar, and per capita tourism spending declined to $681, the lowest level in 16 years.
Though the number of tourists reached 38.6 billion, revenue rose only slightly over 2008’s figure to $26.3 billion. The US dollar, which meteorically rose to 4.9 liras at one point this year, was selling for 4.54 liras June 11 and 4.71 June 18.
The tourism operators in Turkey are not coping up with the situation of high-dollar parity and low revenue.
Ankara this year is counting on Russians to save Turkey’s tourism. In 2016, because of the crisis over the downing of the Russian jet, only 866,000 Russian tourists came. When the crisis ended in 2017, that number shot up by 444% to 4.72 million. Russia now leads the list of countries sending tourists to Turkey, with a 14.55% share. Germany, which had led that list, is now in second place, with an 11.1% share, or 3.58 million tourists.
In 2018, Turkey expects 6 million tourists only from Russia; however, while that number of tourists looks impressive, the revenue they are generating is not. Timur Bayindir, president of the Hoteliers Union of Turkey, said Russian tourists who were spending $800 each in 2013 spent $606 each in 2017.
