The latest release of data from Turkstat shows, not only that tourism is up this year on last year, but, more importantly that tourism revenues have increased by a substantial margin — this is of course more important, because it has been a major aim of the authorities to attract higher wealth tourists and increase revenues.

According to the data, 1,875,486 tourists visited Turkey in April this year, up from 1,824,721, a growth of just under 3%. The figures for May were 2,952,864 up from 2,656,507 (almost 10% up), and in June 3,545,058 tourists visited Turkey, up from 3,261,081 in June last year, a growth of almost 9%.

This second quarter performance is much stronger than that of the first quarter. Visitor numbers were down 18,296 year on year in January, and up 135,000 in February and March combined, leaving the total growth of 117,000. The overall growth in visitor numbers for the second quarter was 631,099. Of course you would expect greater growth as you push into the season, but it is not to be taken for granted.

According to Turkstat tourism income was 7.4% higher in the second quarter of this year compared to last year. This is of course a much better performance than the first quarter when income fell 2.2% year on year according to Turkstat data.

So, overall the picture is positive for Turkish tourism, which will keep the current flow of positive momentum going behind the foreign segment of the property market.

Source : Spot Blue