Tourism

Turkey’s domestic tourism sector heats up

April 28, 2025, 8:03 AM

Colonnade Street, Side, Antalya, Turkey. While domestic tourism surged in Turkey, rising costs and shorter stays reflect the impact of inflation on holidaymakers' spending power

Significant annual growth
Turks spent $10.9bn
Inflationary pressures ahead

Turkey’s domestic tourism sector surged in 2024, with more Turks holidaying at home than ever before, shrugging off high inflation and economic uncertainty by taking to the road in record numbers.

Between them, Turkey’s 85 million citizens took 67 million domestic trips last year, an increase of 9 percent on 2023, according to state statistics agency Turkstat.

Domestic travel outlays saw an 82 percent increase year-on-year in 2024, according to Turkstat, with spending calculated at $10.9 billion. Of this, 88 percent was for individual spending, with the balance of outlays for package tours.

While it is positive to see increased numbers and spending, Aslan Tan, an executive board member of the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies (TÜRSAB) said spending may look larger in nominal terms but “what was 2,000 lira in 2023 was 4,000 lira in 2024”.

“As all people do, Turks take into account their own pocket and shorten their holiday stays,” Tan said.

Though Turkey’s year end inflation came in at 44 percent for 2024, as recently as May last year it was running at more than 75 percent, significantly eating into domestic spending power.

A further consideration was the increase in outlays for hotel, café and restaurant costs, which rose 57 percent last year, after peaking at 96 percent in April.

As highlighted by Tan, the length of holiday stays became an issue in 2024. Though more Turks took more breaks, the average number of overnight stays fell, from 7.7 in 2023 to 7.2, according to Turkstat. One of the sharpest falls – from 9.3 nights to 8.7 came in the third quarter, the July-to-September peak season.

Another factor likely to impact spending is the growing number of Turks choosing to holiday overseas. Neighbouring Greece is a favoured destination due to its convenient location and lower costs, Tan said.

“We are seeing more and more Turks going abroad as a hotel stay in Antalya (on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast) might cost them 20,000 lira while one in Greece costs them 10,000,” he said.

“The main issue is not simply numbers but in creating value from these visits, which needs to be worked on,” he said.

The tourism numbers were collected before the onset of an economic crisis that has further hit Turkey following the detention last month of the mayor of Istanbul, an opponent of Recep Tayyeb Erdoğan, the Turkish president. The benchmark Bist stock market index is down 3.5 percent year to date while the lira has lost 8 percent against the US dollar.