Significant Increase in Tourism Revenue; Turkey Hosts 2.5 Million Iranians

The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism announced in its annual report on the state of tourism in the country, published on Wednesday, February 1, that the number of foreign tourists entering Turkey has exceeded 32 million and 244 thousand. The number of foreign tourists who entered Turkey in 2017 increased by about 28 percent compared to the previous year. The country's tourism revenue from foreign tourists has also risen by nearly 20 percent to over 26.3 billion dollars. This revenue amount is almost equal to Iran's total non-oil exports (excluding gas condensates, which are a type of ultra-light crude oil, but Iran includes it in its non-oil export basket for unspecified reasons) during the first nine months of the current solar year. Statistics from this ministry indicate that last year, the number of Russian tourists traveling to Turkey increased fivefold, while the number of Iranian tourists also showed a 15 percent increase. Iran ranks third in terms of the number of foreign tourists entering Turkey, after Russia and Germany. The details of past tourism statistics show that after a series of bombings, a worsening of relations with Russia, and the failed coup attributed by Turkish officials to the 'Fethullah Gülen Movement,' the number of foreign tourists from this country sharply decreased in 2016 to 25.3 million, but it has significantly increased again last year, although it is still less than in 2015 when over 36.2 million foreigners flooded into Turkey as tourists. However, Turkey's revenue source from the tourism industry does not end with foreign tourists who directly entered the country and brought in over 26 billion dollars in revenue. Statistics from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism show that nearly 5 million Turks living abroad also traveled to the country last year. Additionally, 38.6 million people traveled from Turkey to foreign tourist destinations, 83 percent of whom were foreign citizens. In other words, many foreign nationals who intended to travel to other countries did so through Turkey. In this context, the Turkish Ministry of Transport reported on January 6 that the number of passengers on Turkish flights increased by 11 percent last year. According to this report published on the Ministry of Transport's website, Turkish airports serviced over 193 million people in 2017. About 43 percent of these flights were to foreign destinations, showing a 17 percent growth compared to the previous year.