Tourism in Turkey
Turkey recorded a total of 46 million tourists in 2018, ranking 6th in the world in absolute terms.The fact that larger countries regularly perform better in a comparison of the absolute number of guests is obvious. By putting the tourist numbers in relation to the population of Turkey, the result is much more comparable picture: With 0.55 tourists per resident, Turkey ranked 85th in the world. In Western Asia, it ranked 8th.
Turkey generated around 37.14 billion US Dollar in the tourism sector alone. This corresponds to 4.9 percent of its the gross domestic product and approximately 28 percent of all international tourism receipts in Western Asia.
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Back to overview: Turkey
Most popular destinations in Turkey
No less than 3 cities in Turkey are among the top 100 most popular destinations worldwide. In 2018 Istanbul reached the 10th place with 13.43 million tourists. According to Euromonitor all tourists with at least one overnight stay were counted.| City | Tourists | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| Istanbul | 13,433,000 | #10 |
| Antalya | 12,438,800 | #12 |
| Muğla | 2,723,800 | #84 |
On average, each of the tourists arriving in 2018 spent about 725 US Dollars. Conversely, the inhabitants of Turkey spend only around 532 dollars a year when they themselves spend vacations abroad.
Development of the tourism sector in Turkey from 1995 to 2018
The following chart shows the number of tourist arrivals registered in Turkey each year. Anyone who spends at least one night in the country but does not live there for more than 12 months is considered a tourist. Insofar as the survey included the purpose of the trip, business trips and other non-tourism travel purposes have already been excluded. The number of people passing through within the same day, and e.g. crew members of ships or flights are also not considered as tourists in most countries. If the same person travels in and out more than once within the same year, each visit counts again.Data in the chart are given in millions of tourists. The red line represents the average of all 18 countries in Western Asia.
Revenues in tourism
In 1995, tourism revenues amounted to 4.96 billion USD, or about 2.9 percent of the gross national product. This corresponded to about 7.08 million tourists at that time and roughly 700 USD per person. Within 23 years, the country's dependence on tourism has increased noticeably. In the last year of the survey, the revenue now amounts to 37.14 billion USD, accounting for 4.8 percent of the gross national product. Each visitor now spends an average of 811 USD for his holiday in Turkey.
All data for Turkey in detail
| Year | Number of tourists | Receipts | % of GNP | Receipts per tourist |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 7.08 m | 4.96 bn $ | 2.9 % | 700 $ |
| 1996 | 7.97 m | 5.65 bn $ | 3.1 % | 709 $ |
| 1997 | 9.04 m | 7.00 bn $ | 3.7 % | 775 $ |
| 1998 | 8.96 m | 7.18 bn $ | 2.6 % | 801 $ |
| 1999 | 6.89 m | 5.20 bn $ | 2.0 % | 755 $ |
| 2000 | 9.59 m | 7.64 bn $ | 2.8 % | 797 $ |
| 2001 | 10.78 m | 10.07 bn $ | 5.0 % | 934 $ |
| 2002 | 12.79 m | 11.90 bn $ | 5.0 % | 930 $ |
| 2003 | 13.34 m | 13.20 bn $ | 4.2 % | 990 $ |
| 2004 | 16.83 m | 15.89 bn $ | 3.9 % | 944 $ |
| 2005 | 20.27 m | 20.76 bn $ | 4.1 % | 1,024 $ |
| 2006 | 18.92 m | 19.14 bn $ | 3.5 % | 1,012 $ |
| 2007 | 26.12 m | 21.66 bn $ | 3.2 % | 829 $ |
| 2008 | 29.79 m | 26.45 bn $ | 3.5 % | 888 $ |
| 2009 | 30.19 m | 26.33 bn $ | 4.1 % | 872 $ |
| 2010 | 31.36 m | 26.32 bn $ | 3.4 % | 839 $ |
| 2011 | 34.65 m | 30.30 bn $ | 3.6 % | 874 $ |
| 2012 | 35.70 m | 31.57 bn $ | 3.6 % | 884 $ |
| 2013 | 37.80 m | 36.19 bn $ | 3.8 % | 958 $ |
| 2014 | 39.81 m | 38.86 bn $ | 4.1 % | 976 $ |
| 2015 | 39.48 m | 35.60 bn $ | 4.1 % | 902 $ |
| 2016 | 30.29 m | 26.79 bn $ | 3.1 % | 884 $ |
| 2017 | 37.60 m | 31.87 bn $ | 3.7 % | 848 $ |
| 2018 | 45.77 m | 37.14 bn $ | 4.8 % | 811 $ |
All data correspond to the information of the World Tourism Organization.
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