Travel spending was 22.3 billion TL in the first quarter

The Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK) announced the Household Domestic Tourism data for the first quarter of 2023. Accordingly, in the first quarter of January, February and March, 8 million 601 thousand people residing in the country traveled.

The total number of trips made by travelers with one or more overnight stays within the country increased by 14.5 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and amounted to 10 million 90 thousand trips. Travelers in this quarter made 74 million 530 thousand overnight stays. The average number of overnight stays was 7.4 nights.

Travelers spent 22 billion 271 million 455 thousand TL

Domestic tourists’ travel expenditures in the first quarter of 2023 increased by 82.8 percent compared to the same quarter of the previous year and amounted to 22 billion 271 million 455 thousand TL.

94.5 percent of these expenditures were personal expenditures with 21 billion 47 million 636 thousand TL, and 5.5 percent of them were package tour expenditures with 1 billion 223 million 819 thousand TL. The average expenditure per trip was 2 thousand 207 TL.

When the distribution ratios of expenditure types in total travel expenditures are analyzed in this quarter, food and beverage expenditures with 35.3 percent, transportation expenditures with 32.4 percent and accommodation expenditures with 9.8 percent have the highest share.

When the change rates of these types of expenditures are analyzed compared to the same period of the previous year, it was observed that there was an increase of 116.9 percent in food and beverage expenditures, 75.8 percent in transportation expenditures and 61,6 percent in accommodation expenditures.

Travels for the purpose of visiting relatives took the first place with 65.8 percent. In terms of travel purposes, ‘trip, entertainment, vacation’ took the second place with 18.4 percent, and ‘health’ took the third place with 5.9 percent.

Travelers mostly stayed at friends or relatives’ homes

Those who traveled in this quarter stayed mostly at ‘friends or relatives’ with 58 million 535 thousand overnight stays. According to the accommodation types, “own house” took the second place in the number of overnight stays with 6 million 441 thousand nights, while the “hotel” took the third place with 3 million 685 thousand overnight stays.