Turkey earned $11.4 billion from tourism in the third quarter of the year, almost triple the year-earlier figure, after countries including Russia and Ukraine eased COVID-19 travel restrictions.
Income increased from $4.04 billion in the third quarter of 2020, the Turkish Statistical Institute said on Thursday. Visitors rose to 13.6 million from 5.6 million a year earlier.
Turkey has sought to grow revenue from tourism this year to help finance its current account deficit, ease selling pressure on the beleaguered lira and to boost economic growth.
Income from tourism is still lagging previous peaks – Turkey earned $14 billion in the third quarter of 2019, when 21.6 million people visited. Some governments have continued to advise against travel to the country due to high incidences of the virus.
Russia, the biggest provider of tourists to Turkey, lifted a travel ban in late June. Britain eased curbs on its citizens travelling to the country last month. It provided the third-largest number of visitors after Russia and Germany in 2019.
In the first nine months of the year, income from tourism totalled $16.8 billion and visitors 20.3 million. That compared with $8.1 billion of revenue and 11.2 million visitors in the same period of 2020.
In 2019, a record year for tourism in Turkey, the country earned $26.6 billion in the first nine months of the year and attracted 41 million visitors.