Turkey targets 58 mln tourists, over $40 bln revenue

Turkey hopes to attract 58 million foreign tourists and targets more than $40 billion tourism revenues this year, Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy has said.

He noted that the exact figures for the full year will be released at the end of the month, but the country probably welcomed 51 million tourists and generated around $34 billion of tourism revenues in 2019.

The minister reiterated that the country's targets for 2023 are 75 million foreign visitors and $65 billion in revenues.

Turkey aims to increase the per capita overnight expenditure to $78 this year and further $91 in 2023, he said during a meeting organized jointly by the Turkish Tourism Investors' Association (TTYD) and the Turkish Industry and Business Association (TÜSİAD).

Ersoy said the per capita spending was estimated to be $71 in 2019.

"We think a change in mindset and vision in the tourism industry is needed. Such changes must start at the government level and it really happened. Now, tourism is considered to be a strategic industry," he noted.

"We need to spread tourism activities to all 81 provinces in Turkey."

The minister also stressed that Turkey faces a problem called "repeat guest."

"There are Russian tourists who have visited Antalya 40 times. They are starting to get bored of Antalya. We need to promote the Aegean region with them. We need to shift those tourists to the Aegean coasts which have resemblances with Antalya," he said.

The Tourism Ministry currently works on two major projects in holiday resorts of Çeşme, in the İzmir province on the Aegean coast, and Didim, also on the Aegean coast in the Aydın province, the minister noted.

"Those projects are designed with necessary infrastructure to offer tourism...