Turkey’s travel and tourism gross domestic product (GDP) is projected to grow by 5.5% annually over the next decade, according to new research by an industry group.

"By 2032, the sector's contribution to the nation's GDP could reach nearly TL 1.04 trillion ($117 billion), representing 11% of the total economy," the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) said on Monday.

The sector is set to create more than 716,000 jobs over the next 10 years, it said.

By the end of this year, the sector's contribution to GDP is expected to grow 15.5% to $68.5 billion, while employment in the sector is set to grow by 4% to reach more than 2.5 million jobs, the WTTC said.

Turkey is set to be the fourth most popular European destination for travelers this summer, it added.

The number of foreign visitors arriving in Turkey jumped over 151% from January through March 2022 from a year earlier to around 4.9 million, according to the latest data.

The figure topped around 1.95 million arrivals in the January-March of last year and 4.24 million in 2020.

The arrivals still came in below the 5.44 million foreign tourists who had arrived in the first quarter of 2019 prior to the outbreak of the pandemic.

Combined with Turkish citizens residing abroad, arrivals in the January-March quarter reached 6.3 million, a 148.1% year-over-year increase.

Foreign arrivals in March leaped by 129.7% to nearly 2.1 million, the data showed.

Income in the January-March quarter jumped 122.4% year-over-year to $5.4 billion, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).

Last year despite a gloomy year amid coronavirus-related mobility restrictions across the world, Turkey generated $24.5 billion in tourism revenue.

The country welcomed 24.7 million foreign visitors in 2021.