Turkey's domestic tourism rises 12.8 pct in 2017

The domestic trips taken in Turkey reached 77.1 million in 2017, a 12.8 percent increase compared to the previous year, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) said on Monday.

According to TurkStat, the trip expenditure of domestic tourists increased by 25.9 percent in 2017 compared to the previous year and reached 35.3 billion Turkish liras ($8.2 billion).

"While visiting relatives was the primary purpose of the trips annually at 67.5 percent, the secondary purpose was travel, leisure and holiday at 20.7 percent and the third health [medical treatment] at 5.8 percent," it said.

Domestic visitors stayed mostly at the "house of a friend and relative" with 477.3 million overnight stays.

Visitors who stayed at their "own house" came in second place with 104.7 million overnight stays, followed by hotels with 43.2 million overnight stays.

Turkey's domestic tourism expenditure increased by 39.8 percent year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2017, TurkStat said.

From October to December, residents spent 5.54 billion Turkish liras ($1.2 billion) in 10.7 million domestic trips.

New data on this subject is due on Aug. 6.