29 July 2016•Update: 30 July 2016
ANKARA
Turkey's revenues from tourism fell to $5 billion in the second quarter of the year, official figures showed on Friday.
Revenues fell 35.6 percent from the same period in the previous year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat).
Turkey welcomed nearly 7.5 million foreign visitors in the second quarter of this year, a drop from 10.7 million in the same quarter in 2015. Nearly 42 million tourists visited the country last year.
The country’s first half-year total revenue from tourism was $9.04 billion, down from $12.6 billion a year earlier.
The second quarter has traditionally been the low season for tourism, as the winter months attract a smaller number of tourists who visit to the country's world-famous resorts and historic monuments.
Income from tourism is a valuable source of foreign currency for the country, constituting nearly 4 percent of national income last year with $31.5 billion.
TurkStat also said that over 2 million of the visitors to the country in the quarter were Turkish citizens resident abroad.
"While 77.1 percent of this income (excluding GSM roaming and marina service expenditures) was obtained from foreign visitors, 22.9 percent was obtained from citizens resident abroad,” TurkStat said.
According to the institute, the average amount spent by foreign tourists was $602 this year in the second quarter, when resort prices are low due to low winter demand. Turks living abroad spent $973 on average.
According to TurkStat, the number of Turkish citizens traveling abroad in the quarter fell by 17.3 percent over the last year and reached 2.03 million. Their average expenditure was $742 per capita for the quarter.
Nearly 41.6 million tourists came to Turkey last year, while the country received 41.4 million tourists in 2014. Just over half of the foreign visitors came from Europe, or 18.7 million of the total of 34.9 million.
