Turkey’s Q3 Tourism Revenue Rises 11% Y/Y

Turkey's tourism revenue increased 11% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2014, reaching USD 12.85B, the Turkish Statistical Institute said on Thursday.

Foreign visitors contributed 81.8% of total tourism revenue, while the remainder was obtained from Turkish citizens living abroad.

"Tourism continues to break records in Turkey despite the instability surrounding the country," hurriyetdailynews.com quoted Tourism Minister Omer Celik as saying in a statement.

Turkey's income from visitors travelling on individual tours was USD 8.91B, while USD 3.95B of tourism income was contributed by individuals travelling on package tours. 

The average expenditure of the visitors was 2 per capita and the number of departing visitors increased by 6.4% to 17 million.

Third-quarter tourism expenditure,which is the expenditure of Turkish citizens resident in Turkey and travelling abroad,fell 3.8%, reaching USD 1.18B, while the number of Turkish citizens travelling abroad increased by 10.4% year-on-year to 2.28 million.

According to Tourism Ministry data, the number of tourists visiting Turkey rose to over 30 million in the first nine months of the year, up from 28.3 million during the same period of 2013.

According to industry officials, Turkey is expected to post USD 35B in tourism revenue this year, up from USD 32.3B in 2013.

The country was the world's sixth top destination in terms of tourist numbers last year, according to the World Tourism Organization.