Türkiye greets 57M visitors in 2023 with substantial tourism income surge

Türkiye's tourism income has totalled $54.3 billion in 2023, up 16.9% on a yearly basis, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) revealed.

The total number of visitors, including Turkish citizens living abroad, was at 57 million in 2023, increasing by 11.1% year-on-year, the TurkStat said on Wednesday.

Last year, while 67.6% of tourists visited Türkiye mostly for "travel, entertainment, sportive and cultural activities," 67.4% of Turkish citizens living abroad visited to see relatives and friends.

In the last quarter alone, the tourism revenue increased by 6.8% to $12.27 billion with the number of visitors at 12.4 million, up 4.1% versus the same quarter 2022.

Last year, the number of Turkish citizens visiting foreign countries increased by 52.3% to 11.06 million while average expenditure was $639 per capita.

49.2 million foreign visitors

According to the Culture and Tourism Ministry, Türkiye welcomed 49.2 million foreign tourists in 2023, hiking 10.4% from the previous year.

The figure exceeded its pre-pandemic period level of 45 million in 2019, the ministry data released on Wednesday showed.

Istanbul, Türkiye's largest city by population, was the top tourist draw, attracting 17.4 million foreign visitors last year.

The famed resort city of Antalya on the Turkish Riviera ranked second with 14.8 million foreign visitors in 2023.

The northwestern province of Edirne, which borders both Bulgaria and Greece and the Aegean province of Mugla followed them with 4.7 million and 3.3 million, respectively.

Russians made up 12.8% of all foreign visitors or at 6.3 million, rising 20.7% from the previous year.

It was followed by Germans at 6.2 million (up 9% annually), Britons at 3.8 million (up 12.8%), Bulgarians at 2.9 million (up 0.4%), and Iranians at 2.5 million (up 7.4%).