ISTANBUL
A total of 2.7 million visitors came to Türkiye for shopping purposes in the first nine months of 2024, down from 2.78 million shoppers in the same period of last year.
They spent $4.8 billion on clothing and shoes, up from $4.5 billion in January-September of 2023, showed data the Turkish Statistics Institute (TÜİK) unveiled earlier this week.
Tourists also spent another $1.7 billion on souvenirs in the first nine months of 2024.
During the same period, 81,000 Turkish citizens residing abroad arrived in Türkiye for shopping, according to TÜİK data.
Meanwhile, more than 250,000 Turks traveled abroad for shopping, down from 266,000 a year earlier.
Turkish tourists’ shopping expenditures in foreign countries amounted to $282 million, up from $244 million in January-September last year.
In 2023, foreign visitors’ spending on clothing and shoes was $5.8 billion, up 2 percent from 2022 and 50 percent higher compared with 2021.
Last year, 3.7 million visitors came to Türkiye for shopping.
Meanwhile, health expenditures of visitors from foreign countries totaled $2.31 billion in the first nine months of 2024, rising from the $2.28 billion they spent a year earlier.
Türkiye hosted a total of 1.15 million medical tourists in the January-September period, slightly higher than 1.13 million travelers visiting the country to receive health and medical services, according to the latest data.
Türkiye’s tourism revenues increased by 6.6 percent year-on-year in January-September to $46.9 billion, while foreign tourist arrivals were up 6.75 percent annually in the same period to 41.9 million.
