Domestic tourism spending sees rise in Turkey in Q3

Domestic tourism spendings in Turkey rose 10.4% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2019, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced Wednesday.

Residents spent 23.3 billion Turkish liras ($4.1 billion) on trips in July-September, compared to 21.1 billion liras ($3.4 billion) in the same quarter of the previous year.

The third quarter data showed that tourists took 24.3 million trips, falling 2.9% on an annual basis.

Domestic trips with one or more than one overnights slipped 1.8% compared to the same quarter of 2018, standing at 31.9 million.

The average expenditure per trip was 731 Turkish liras (some $129) from July to September.

"The highest increases were health expenditures with 36.1%, other expenditures (sports, entertainment, education, jewelry, gold, silver, carpet, rug) with 21.1% and accommodation expenditures with 14.3%," it said.

The primary purpose of trips was visiting relatives, accounting for a 60.5% share, followed by travel, leisure, and holiday with 33.8%, and health with 3%.