Turkey’s impressive tourism turnaround continued in 2018 as it again topped Europe for international arrivals growth and likely welcomed a record number of foreign visitors, global trends analyst Skift reported.
Turkey’s foreign arrivals for the first nine months of 2018 were up 22.3 percent on 2017, easily outpacing Serbia (15 percent), Malta (15 percent), and Montenegro (14 percent), according to the European Travel Commission.
“Assuming year-to-date growth holds true for 2018 as a whole, arrivals to Turkey in 2018 will exceed 47 million – this would mark a new record for the destination in tourist arrivals terms, having never before exceeded 40 million,” the ETC said in its report, reported Skift .
Even though Turkey is on the path to recovery following the attempted coup in 2016 and several terrorist attacks, arrivals from key markets such as the United Kingdom and Germany are still lower than their peak levels. Also, Turkey’s increase in 2018 marked a slight decline from 2017, when arrivals were up 22.9 percent, according to the ETC.
Tour operators like TUI Group and Thomas Cook have returned to Turkey in the last couple of years following a resurgence in customer demand.
Nick Wrightman, managing director of tour operator The Discerning Collection, which specializes in Turkey, said the country had enjoyed a buoyant couple of years. Wrightman said the growth in 2018 can be attributed to the weak Turkish lira, cheaper hotels and the perception of an improvement in safety.
“I’ve noticed certainly that families are back again, and that’s a great sign for Turkey. When families go, you know the destination is perceived as safe,” he told Skift.
Countries like Spain and Portugal benefitted from instability in Turkey but the trend appears to be reversing now. Spain’s international tourism growth dropped to 0.7 percent and Portugal’s to 0.2 percent
The UK was the worst performing destination —down 5.3 percent — thanks in part to its impressive performance in 2017.
“More developed destinations can find it difficult to sustain higher rates of growth compared to developing ones,” the ETC said.
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