Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, Türkiye’s Minister of Culture and Tourism, announced the country’s first-half tourism results in a press conference held in İstanbul on July 31st. In the first 6 months of 2026, Türkiye hosted 25.8 million international visitors. Hence, Türkiye’s tourism revenues remained at last year’s level, totalling USD 25.8 billion.
Minister Ersoy said, “Regional tensions in the Middle East and global uncertainties have impacted tourism demand in the first half of 2026. Although Türkiye was not involved in the conflict and all our airlines and airports continued to operate without disruption, the closure of Middle Eastern airspace led to a slight decline in demand. In the first six months of 2025, we hosted 26.4 million visitors. During the same period in the current year, we welcomed 25.8 million visitors. We have commenced the second half of the year strongly, and our current projections suggest a markedly improved performance for the remainder of the year. As a consequence of our strategic initiatives, we maintained our tourism revenues at the same level as in 2025, concluding the first half of the year with a robust figure of USD 25.8 billion.”
Türkiye’s average stay per night increased by 0,5% to 10,01 nights and spend per night increased by 2,6% to USD 109. Türkiye’s 3 biggest source markets remained the same: the Russian Federation (2.65M), Germany (2.44M) and the UK (1.58M).
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