Turkey's Tourism Revenues Continue to Slide in Q1

Turkey’s tourism revenue reached $3.4 billion in the first quarter of the year with a 17.1% year-on-year decrease, amid the continuing decline in the number of foreign arrivals, data from the Turkish Statistics Institute (TUIK) showed on April 28.

According to TUIK, while some 71.8% of this income, excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures, were obtained from foreign visitors, the remaining 28.2% were obtained from Turks residing abroad, Hurriyet Daily News reported.

The number of foreign arrivals to Turkey fell to 3.8 million in the first three months of the year with a 6.4% decrease compared with the same period of 2016, data from the Tourism Ministry showed on April 28.

About 1.6 million foreign tourists visited Turkey in March, with a 4% year-on-year decrease.

While the number of arrivals from Europe continued to decline in March, there was a significant increase in the number of arrivals from Russia in March, data showed.

A total of 565,643 people from European countries visited Turkey in March, with an almost 25% year-on-year decrease.

In the same month, the number of arrivals from Russia to Turkey showed a 145% year-on-year increase, hitting 58,654.

Most tourists arriving in Turkey were from Iran, Georgia, Bulgaria, Germany and Russia in March.

In the first three months of the year, 1.4 million Europeans visited Turkey with a 23% year-on-year increase.

In the same period, 138,039 Russians visited Turkey with a 109% year-on-year increase.

Turkey’s hotel occupancy rates rose in March after months of decline, thanks to a surge in business meetings.

Hotel revenues, however, have continued to decline in the first quarter of 2017, the Hotels Association of Turkey (TUROB) announced on April 27.

Hotel occupancy rates rose to 55.8%, up 5.3 percentage points year-on-year from March, TUROB said in a statement based on the latest STR Global data.

Hotel occupancy rates across Turkey increased to 52.3% in the first quarter from 50.1% in the same period of 2016.  Hotel revenues, however, continued to decline in March.