Türkiye has registered its highest first-quarter tourism income ever, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy said on Wednesday, as official data showed revenue rose to $9.45 billion (TL 363.70 billion).
The income for the January-March period was 5.6% higher compared to a year ago, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.
Separate data showed Türkiye welcomed 8.84 million visitors in the first quarter, a 2.5% decline from the same period a year earlier. Ersoy cited the holy month of Ramadan, observed by Muslims worldwide, as a key factor behind the shortfall.
Speaking at a press briefing in Ankara, Ersoy noted that the total number of visitors in March fell by 11.6% year-over-year to 3 million.
Foreign tourist arrivals dropped 13.14% to 2.35 million. For the first quarter overall, foreign visitors totaled 6.69 million, marking a 5% annual decline, according to Culture and Tourism Ministry data.
The average expenditure per capita among visitors was $1,022, up 4.8% year-over-year in the January-March period, the TurkStat data showed.
Of the total income, $9.32 billion came from standard tourist expenditures, while $127 million was generated from visitors traveling for personal transfers.
Ersoy attributed much of the March slowdown to Ramadan, which he said reduced travel from Muslim-majority countries. April is expected to have closed with nearly 6% growth in visitor numbers, he noted.
A 6.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Istanbul a week ago tempered the expected growth. “Based on earlier trends, we were anticipating up to 16% growth in April,” Ersoy said, “but due to the earthquake, the actual increase was limited to around 6%.”
Still, Türkiye expects a modest 0.6% year-on-year increase in visitor numbers for the January-April period, according to Ersoy.
For the whole of 2025, the government remains committed to its target of attracting 65 million visitors and generating $64 billion in tourism revenue, he noted.
Foreign tourists' arrivals jumped to 52.6 million last year, surpassing the previous record of 49.2 million in 2023.
That figure reached nearly 62.3 million when visits by Turks living abroad are included, making it the world’s fourth-most visited country, according to data from the United Nations World Tourism Organization.
Tourism is a vital industry that Türkiye relies on to help flip its chronic current account deficit to a surplus.
The sector contributes about 10% to Türkiye's gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for about 5% of total employment.
The tourism income jumped 8.3% in 2024 to $61.1 billion and blew past the previous high of $54.3 billion in 2023.
