According to the data announced by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), tourism income is the IV. increased by 95% in the quarter compared to the same quarter of the previous year and became 7 billion 631 million 374 thousand dollars. 80.1% of tourism income (excluding mobile phone roaming and marina service expenditures) was obtained from foreign visitors and 19.9% from citizen visitors residing abroad. Visitors organize their travels with personal or package tours. Personal expenditures constituted 5 billion 883 million 106 thousand dollars of the expenditures made in this quarter, and package tour expenditures constituted 1 billion 748 million 268 thousand dollars.
Tourism revenue increased by 103% in 2021 compared to the previous year and reached 24 billion 482 million 332 thousand dollars. Personal expenditures constituted 19 billion 679 million 915 thousand dollars of this year's income, and package tour expenditures constituted 4 billion 802 million 417 thousand dollars. All types of spending increased in this quarter compared to the same quarter of last year.
Package tour expenditures (the remaining share in our country) increased by 202.5%, tour services expenditures increased by 162.4% and sports, education and cultural expenditures increased by 143.5%. When evaluated on an annual basis, the highest increase was in tour services expenditures.
The number of visitors departing from our country is IV. In the third quarter of the year, it increased by 97.5% compared to the same quarter of the previous year and became 9 million 50 thousand 112 people. 83% of these were foreigners with 7 million 511 thousand 28 people, and 17% of them were citizens residing abroad with 1 million 539 thousand 84 people. The number of visitors departing from our country increased by 85.5% in 2021 compared to the previous year and reached 29 million 357 thousand 463 people. 81.5% of them were foreigners with 23 million 940 thousand 21 people, and 18.5% of them were citizens residing abroad with 5 million 417 thousand 442 people. In this quarter, foreign visitors visited our country with 68.6% mostly for “travel, entertainment, sports and cultural activities”.
“Visiting relatives and friends” took the second place with 16.9%, and “shopping” took the third place with 5.2%. Citizens residing abroad, on the other hand, came to our country mostly for the purpose of “visiting relatives and friends” with 65.1%. When evaluated on an annual basis, "travel, entertainment, sportive and cultural activities" ranked first among foreign visitors with 71.4%, while citizens residing abroad came to our country mostly for "visiting relatives and friends" with 64.5%.
