Turkey's travel and tourism GDP expected to expand by 5.5%

According to a new study from an industry association, Turkey's travel and tourist GDP is expected to expand by 5.5% annually over the next decade.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) predicted on Monday that the sector's contribution to the country's GDP might reach almost 1.04 trillion TL (117 billion USD) by 2032, accounting for 11% of the whole economy.

Job vacancies in Turkey

Over the next ten years, the sector is expected to generate more than 716,000 employment opportunities, according to the report.

The sector's contribution to GDP is predicted to increase by 15.5% to 68.5 billion USD by the end of this year, while employment is expected to increase by 4% to more than 2.5 million jobs, according to the WTTC.

Destination for travellers

This summer, Turkey is expected to be the fourth most popular European destination for tourists, according to the report. According to the most recent data, the number of international visitors arriving in Turkey increased by over 151% from January to March 2022 compared to the same period the previous year, to about 4.9 million.

In January-March of last year, the figure was over 1.95 million, and in 2020, it is expected to be around 4.24 million.

People still arrived

The arrivals were still less than the 5.44 million foreign tourists who arrived in the first quarter of 2019 before the pandemic broke out.

In the January-March quarter, along with Turkish residents living abroad, arrivals totalled 6.3 million, up 148.1% year on year. According to the report, foreign arrivals increased by 129.7% to roughly 2.1 million in March.

Increased income

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat), income increased by 122.4% year-on-year to 5.4 billion USD in the January-March quarter. Despite a bleak year marked by global coronavirus-related travel limitations, Turkey achieved 24.5 billion USD in tourism revenue last year.

In 2021, the country received 24.7 million foreign tourists.