Domestic tourism expenditure in Turkey rose 7 percent on a yearly basis between April and June, the country's statistical office said yesterday. However, spending on package tours and travel for leisure remained low. Local tourists spent nearly TL 7.4 billion ($1.7 billion) in the second quarter of this year, up from TL 6.9 billion in the same period of 2017, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said.

Domestic visitors made 111.1 million overnight stays from April to June. Some 15.5 million Turks made domestic trips in the second quarter. The number of domestic trips with one or more than one overnights rose by 6.1 percent on a yearly basis to reach around 18.8 million trips.

TurkStat said that the primary purpose of most domestic trips - around 65.6 percent - was visiting family and friends. "The secondary purpose of the trip was ‘travel, leisure, and holiday' with 25.8 percent while the third was ‘health' with 4.2 percent." Only 7.1 percent of expenditures were on package tours, while the rest was personal expenditures. By type of accommodation, domestic visitors made 79.4 million overnight stays at the house of a friend or relative or a house they owned in another city. In comparison, visitors spent 9.2 million overnight stays in hotels.