The information sourced from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) stated that in the year 2016, hungry tourists ended up dishing out over 5 billion dollars on food and beverages in Turkey.
TurkStat said that the tourism expenditures totaled about $22.1 billion. Out of this amount, $3.6 billion had been spent on package tours.
The food and beverages accounted for the largest chunk of personal expenditures with $5.1 billion. This was followed by $3.3 billion expenses on international transportation and also $2.5 billion that has been spent on accommodation.
Apart from that, tourists had spent nearly $1.8 billion on domestic transportation, $715 million on healthcare, $295 million on sports, education and as much as $55 million on tour services.
The visitors did not leave the nation empty handed.
This is because they had spent $87 million on drugs and carpets. Başak Türkoğlu who is the Turkish Ambassador to Malaysia told the media that food plays a very crucial role in boosting ties between two nations. She went on to add that the Malaysian tourists were quite impressed with Turkish food during their visits to this region.
Iskender kebab, çiğ köfte and baklava are some of the cuisines that are favored by the tourists in Turkey.
Türkoğlu said that Turkey is indeed a very big market. They require restaurants that provide a fantastic presentation of great quality Ottoman and traditional Turkish cuisines.
Though the tourism revenue of Turkey had slumped to a considerable extent in 2016, restaurant owners can now help to revive the tourism statistics.
