More tourists in Turkey, but they spend less and leave quicker

Getty Images/Unsplash

• Visitor numbers up 3.5%
• Spend per head down 1.6%
• Average stay falls 6.2%

Turkey is on track to break records for tourist arrivals this year, but it may fall short of revenue targets, as visitor numbers are up but spending is flatlining and average holiday stays are getting shorter. 

Just over 23.2 million overseas visitors made Turkey their destination in the third quarter of the year, the statistics agency Turkstat said, a 3.5 percent increase on the July to September term in 2023. 

The Q3 arrivals took the nine-month total to 48 million inbound tourists, well on the way to both eclipsing the 57 million posted last year and hitting the government’s 60 million target for 2024. 

However the data also highlighted trends that could concern the tourism industry. 

Average per capita spending by visitors during their stay across the first three quarters of the year was down 1.6 percent, to $970, while time spent in the country also dipped. Overseas tourists stayed 10.6 days rather than the average of 11.3 days seen in 2023. 

The Turkstat data also showed a 2.2 percent fall in tourist spending on food and beverages, again indicating visitors were being more cautious with their outlays. 

• Rising costs and fewer visitors hit Turkey tourism

• Services upturn eases Turkey’s trade deficit woe

• Turkey’s foreign tourist arrivals rise 12% to 44m

The shorter stays and lower spends suggest the tourism industry may not hit the $60 billion revenue target announced by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in September, with nine-month income for the sector coming in at $47 billion as it heads into the cooler off-season. 

Turkey’s broader economic situation, with high inflation and a controlled foreign currency rate, have pushed prices up and contributed to the country being seen as an expensive destination, says Yiğit Girgin, the representative for the Professional Hotel Managers’ Association in the Aegean resort region of Bodrum.

“Until our country’s economic indicators improve, the situation is not going to change much,” he says. “I don’t believe the sector will meet our targets, with 2024 to be similar to 2023 and 2025 to be parallel to 2024.”

It is not just Turkey that is posting higher numbers but lower earnings: its neighbour and destination rival Greece went down a similar path this summer. 

While January to August arrivals in Greece climbed 9.9 percent to 24.9 million, overall earnings only rose 3.3 percent to €15.1 billion ($16.4 billion), around $600 a head. Critically, earnings for July and August – peak season for the Aegean and Mediterranean region – fell year on year in both months, down by around 4 percent. 

One reason given for the slowdown in earnings growth on both sides of the Aegean is that foreign tourists are having to contend with a limited budget, and are being more careful of where and how they spend. Another is that more tourists are choosing to vacation in cheaper “shoulder” months, either side of the peak summer season, spreading arrival numbers more broadly but generating lower returns. 

Further challenges

While Turkey will shake off the impression of being an expensive destination, Bahattin Yücel, formerly chairman of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies and tourism minister in the mid-1990s, says it faces other challenges. 

“The concern is that numbers of incoming tourists from EU and OECD countries are not increasing; on the contrary, they’re falling. That is worrying,” he says.

One reason for this is that Turkey, unlike other Mediterranean and Aegean destinations, did not do enough to promote and improve its tourism product in the post-Covid era, Yücel says. 

The Professional Hotel Managers’ Association’s Girgin agrees, saying that, increasingly, visitors are looking to get away from the five-star hotel, eating, drinking, sun, sand and sea holiday, long the model adopted by Turkey to attract tourists. 

“Tourists as a group are changing, preferring to buy an experience,” he said. “Turkey is trying to respond to this demand by promoting its culture, history and cuisine, but creating change and awareness takes time.

“Creating diversity in the sector and aiming more at high income and European tourists is the better path to take.”