Minister of Culture and Tourism of Türkiye Mehmet Nuri Ersoy held a press conference at the Atatürk Cultural Center in Istanbul, where he announced tourism data for the month of September and the first 9 months of the year, providing assessments on the sector's agenda.

In 9 months, Türkiye hosted more than 45 million visitors

According to the data shared by Ersoy, the number of visitors to Türkiye in the first 9 months of the year increased by 12.4 percent to 45,2 million compared the same period of the last year. Last year the number was 40,2 million.

In September 2023 alone, the number of visitors to Türkiye increased by 8.3 percent compared to the same month of last year, rising from 6 million to 6.5 million.

Russia is still biggest source market of Türkiye

In the first 9 months, the country that sent the most tourists to Turkey was the Russian Federation with 5,166 million visitors, followed by Germany with 4,855 million and the United Kingdom with 3,157 million.

Overnight stays on the decrease

Mehmet Nuri Ersoy pointed out that the average length of stay in Türkiye for the nine-month period decreased by 6 percent from 10.1 to 9.5 compared to the same period last year. He attributed this decline to the decrease in the share of total visitors from Turkish citizens residing abroad.

20,2 billion tourism revenue

According to the data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), tourism revenue of Türkiye has increased 13,1 percent to 20,2 billion in third quarter. Out of this, 16.5 of tourism revenue was generated from foreign residents visiting Türkiye.

5,5 billion dollars of total tourism revenue was generated from package tours. In this quarter, personal expenses accounted for 14.6 billion dollars, while package tour expenses constituted 5.58 billion dollars.