According to Turkey’s statistical authority, the total tourism income of Turkey has totaled around $4.63 billion in the first quarter of 2019. From January to March, the quarterly tourism revenue of Turkey surged 4.6% year-on-year, up from $4.42 billion in the same period last year, Turkish Statistical Institute reported.
The Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey also revealed that there are about 394,000 Chinese tourists came to Turkey, a 59 percent increase, in 2018. After Sichuan Airlines, which will begin flights from Chengdu, the homeland of pandas, to Istanbul on April 30, China Southern Airlines will launch flights from Wuhan in addition to its Beijing-Istanbul line and Lucky Air is gearing up to schedule flights from Kunming to Turkey’s financial hub.
Turkish Statistical Institute reported that with the income of 80.3%, excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures was obtained from foreign visitors and 19.7% was obtained from citizens resident abroad.
The official figures said that the individual expenditures constituted nearly $4.1 billion of the total tourism income, while some $543 million of the revenues came from package tour expenditures. Turkey has welcomed over 6.6 million visitors in the three-month period, an 8.5% rise on a yearly basis — 82.2% foreign and 17.8% Turkish citizens living abroad.
TurkStat said that the average expenditures of visitors were $697 per capita, as foreigners spent $678 per capita and Turkish citizens spent $765 per capita.
