Turkey's tourism revenues rise 74% in Q2

Turkey's tourism revenues rose by 74 percent year-on-year to 4.5 billion U.S. dollars in the second quarter as the economy recovered from the recession, official data showed Thursday.

Among the total, 3.6 billion U.S. dollars of revenues came from foreign tourists while 891.4 million U.S. dollars were spent by Turkish citizens living abroad, the Turkish Statistical Institute said in a press release.

In the same period, tourist expenditure by people living in Turkey visiting other countries increased by 24.8 percent year-on- year to 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, the institute said.

Turkey's tourism sector saw the arrival of more than 27 million foreign tourists last year, up 2.8 percent year-on-year, in contrast to a 4.3 percent drop in global tourist arrivals.

The country's economy spearheaded with an annual growth of 11.7 percent in the first quarter of this year after a 4.7 percent slump last year.

Source: Xinhua