Tourism in Turkey – Figures & Regions

Tourism is an important economic sector in Turkey and is considered one of its largest sources of foreign currency. The tourist centres are the southern Aegean coast and the “Turkish Riviera” between Antalya and Cape Anamur. In 2008 Turkey earned around 21 billion dollars from tourism, and in 2018 26.2 billion dollars. On average, foreign tourists spent $800 per head.

In 2015 Turkish tourism still contributed 13 percent to gross domestic product. In the first nine months of 2016 the number of foreign tourists fell by a third. Under the impact of terrorist attacks and the autocratic conduct of President Erdogan since the attempted coup of July 2016, many hotel operators had to file for bankruptcy. Foreign currency revenues from tourism fell from 24.9 billion US dollars (January to September 2015) to 17.3 billion dollars (January to September 2016).[53] The semi-state-owned company Turkish Airlines (THY), the tenth-largest airline in the world with 60 million passengers, recorded a loss of 647 million dollars in the 1st half of 2016.[53]

In 2017 the number of foreign holidaymakers rose again compared with 2016.[54]

In 2018 the number of foreign tourists reached a new record of 39.5 million holidaymakers.

In 2019 the previous year's record was broken again, with over 45 million foreign holidaymakers (in 2000 there had been only about 10.4 million). The largest national group among tourists to Turkey were the Russians with about 7 million, followed by Germans (5 million), Bulgarians (2.7 million) and Britons (2.5 million).

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic a year later, the number of tourists fell significantly (about 12.7 million holidaymakers). A year after that, tourist numbers rose sharply again to over 29 million.

Number of international tourists

Year Number

1963 198,000

1970 724,000

1975 1,540,000

1980 1,288,000

1985 2,614,000

1990 5,389,000

1995 7,726,000

2000 10,412,000

2005 21,124,000

2010 28,630,000

2015 36,240,000

2019 45,060,000