Domestic tourism spending rises 13 percent in second quarter

ANKARA

Household domestic tourism expenditures in Türkiye surged by 13.4 percent in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period last year, reaching 116.9 billion Turkish Liras ($2.79 billion), even as the number of residents taking trips declined.

According to data released by the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK) on Oct. 22, the total number of domestic travelers fell by 13.7 percent year-on-year in the April-June period to 13.9 million, yet higher per capita spending drove overall expenditures sharply upward.

TÜİK figures show that the average expenditure per trip rose to 6,848 liras, up from 5,200 liras a year earlier and 6,040 liras in the first quarter of 2025.

Of these expenditures, 85.2 percent, amounting to 99.7 billion liras, consisted of personal expenditures (up 7.4 percent annually), while 14.8 percent, totaling 17.3 billion liras (up 67.1 percent), were package tour expenditures.

The increase was largely driven by higher costs in accommodation, food and beverage, and transportation.

In the second quarter, the largest share belonged to food and beverage expenditures at 30.1 percent, followed by transportation at 25.8 percent and accommodation at 15.7 percent.

Compared with the same period of the previous year, food and beverage expenditures increased by 3.1 percent, transportation expenditures by 7.1 percent, and accommodation expenditures by 26.2 percent.

In the second quarter, the total number of domestic trips with one or more overnight stays decreased by 13.9 percent compared with the same quarter of the previous year, falling to 17 million trips. In this quarter, travelers recorded 99.2 million overnight stays, with an average of 5.8 nights per trip.

The majority of domestic trips during the period were undertaken for the purpose of visiting relatives, a category that represented well over 60 percent of all journeys made within the country.

Following this, holidays and leisure-related travel accounted for 32.2 percent of total trips, while health-related travel, while a smaller segment, still contributed 3 percent of overall trips.

In this quarter, travelers spent the highest number of overnight stays — 68.7 million — in the homes of friends or relatives. By type of accommodation, the second most common choice was their own homes, with 13.9 million overnight stays, while hotels ranked third with 9.7 million overnight stays.