TÜRSAB: We predict that we will close the year with $ 34 billion in tourism revenue

Turkish Travel Agencies Association (TÜRSAB) President Firuz Bağlıkaya said their forecast was to close the year with 44 million total visitors and 34 billion dollars tourism revenue. Expressing the number of tourists visiting Turkey, in the January-August period of 2022 had increased to 29,334,652 he said: “In the first 8 months of the year 2022 the number of foreign visitors to our country remained 4.38 percent behind the same period in 2019, before the out-break.

The Russian-Ukrainian war started in 2022, which we had entered with hope and forced us to reconsider the plans and accounts in tourism, for this year. Unfortunately, the state of war in these two countries, which are our main markets is also affecting tourism. The fact that the expected levels will not be reached due to the war in Russia and Ukraine, where we receive about 9 million visitors, will also affect the total number of visitors at the end of the year. Because although the Russian market experienced a 22 percent increase in the 8-month period compared to the same period of 2021, it is seen that there was a 37.8 percent decrease compared to the 8-month period of 2019. It is worth noting that in the Ukrainian market, as of the 8-month period, we are 69 percent behind 2021 and 59.8 percent behind 2019. Therefore, we predict that we will close the year 2022 with a total of 44 million visitors and 34 billion dollars in tourism revenue when viewed within the framework of this table.”