Domestic trips decline by 43 percent, people prefer "a friend's house" over hotels

Photo: AA, Graphics and tables: Turkstat

Domestic touristic trips in the first quarter of 2020 decreased by 43.5 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) figures. 

In the first quarter, 6,78 million people had domestic trips. The number of trips for more than one overnight was 7.9 million. There were more than 14 million trips in the same period last year.

Turkey confirmed its first coronavirus case on March 11 and restricted intercity travels from early April to early June. Weekend curfews were also in place in 30 larger cities in this period.

Expenditures decreased

In this quarter, trip expenditures of domestic tourists decreased by 41.9 percent to 4.61 billion lira (~670 million USD) compared to the same period of the previous year. Individual expenditures made up 96 percent of this amount while four percent was for package tours. The average expenditure per trip was 510 lira (74 USD).

The expenditures for sports, entertainment, education, jewelry, gold, silver, carpet, rug, etc. decreased by 67.9 percent, expenditures made before trips (clothing, medicines, bag, camera, film, etc.) decreased by 61.6 percent and accommodation expenditures decreased by 61.0 percent.

People stay at friends' or relatives houses

According to the number of overnight trips by type of accommodation, domestic visitors stayed mostly at "the house of a friend or relative" with 61.98 million overnights. While "own house" took second place with 7 million 502 thousand overnights, "a hotel" took third place with 2 million 161 thousand overnights. (VK)