In the first quarter of this year, domestic travel expenditures increased by 82.8% compared to the same period of the previous year and exceeded ₺22 billion 271 million, while an average of ₺2 thousand 207 was spent per trip.
Turkish Statistical Institute announced the results of the “Household Domestic Tourism Survey” for the January-March period.
Accordingly, 8 million 601 thousand people residing in the country traveled in the first quarter of the year. The total number of trips made by travelers within the country, with one or more overnight stays, increased by 14.5% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and amounted to 10 million 90 thousand. Travelers in this quarter made 74 million 530 thousand overnight stays. The average number of overnight stays was 7.4.
Domestic travel expenditures of domestic tourists increased by 82.8% in the said quarter compared to the same quarter of the previous year and reached ₺22 billion 271 million 455 thousand.
94.5% of these expenditures were personal expenditures with ₺21 billion 47 million 636 thousand, and 5.5% of them were package tour expenditures with ₺1 billion 223 million 819 thousand. The average expenditure per trip was ₺2 thousand 207.
When the change rates of travel expenditures in the mentioned quarter compared to the same quarter of 2022 are analyzed, food and beverage expenditures with 35.3%, transportation with 32.4% and accommodation expenditures with 9.8% have the highest share. When the change rates of these expenditure types are analyzed compared to the same period of the previous year, it was observed that there was an increase of 116.9% in food and beverage expenditures, 75.8% in transportation expenditures and 61,6% in accommodation expenditures.
Visiting relatives comes first
In the first quarter of this year, trips to visit relatives ranked first with 65.8%. This was followed by travel, entertainment, vacation with 18.4%, and health with 5.9%, respectively.
Those who traveled in the January-March period stayed mostly in “friends, relatives’ houses” with 58 million 535 thousand overnight stays. According to accommodation types, “own house” ranked second with 6 million 441 thousand overnight stays, while “hotel” ranked third with 3 million 685 thousand.
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz