After two years of the Corona doldrums, tourism in Turkey is experiencing a significant upswing again.

This pleases the government, which is increasing its planned foreign exchange earnings during the economic crisis.

Many have a share in the upswing – above all the Germans.

Andreas Mihm

Business correspondent for Austria, Central and Eastern Europe and Turkey based in Vienna.

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Already in the spring, tour operators were hopeful of being able to repeat the old record figures of more than five million visitors from Germany.

The half-year figures from the Turkish Ministry of Tourism now confirm this.

With more than two million entries by the end of June, almost four times as many visitors presented a German ID as in the previous year.

One in eight of the 16.4 million guests came from Germany.

And then the big wave of summer travel with the strong third quarter was just around the corner.

The other places were followed by 1.5 million Russians and 1.3 million Britons.

Compared to the previous year, the number of British visitors increased 25-fold, while the number of guests from Russia (where Corona was not taken so seriously in 2021) only doubled.

This is also a consequence of the Russian attack on Ukraine, which is making flight connections to Turkey more difficult due to Western sanctions.

Against this background, it seems unlikely that 4.7 million Russian guests will come again this year.

The energy bill rises faster

Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy is now hoping for 47 million instead of the previously expected 42 million guests.

That would be almost twice as much as last year.

Ersoy is not concerned with the statistics, but with foreign exchange earnings.

Because tourism in its diverse forms such as city, family or study trips is one of the most important sources of foreign exchange for the country.

Health tourism with beauty and hair surgeries is not only advertised in Europe.

Wealthy couples from the Gulf States, India, Pakistan and Azerbaijan are increasingly hosting their spectacular wedding celebrations in Turkey, industry officials say, hoping for $500 million in sales.

Tourism Minister Ersoy, for his part, now calculates tourism revenue at $37 billion instead of the previously expected $35 billion.

Deutsche Bank even thinks $40 billion is possible.

However, the amount will be significantly overcompensated by the energy bill, which has doubled to $100 billion.

"The final quarter of the year is likely to be particularly challenging for the lira due to the seasonal decline in tourism revenue and rising energy imports," the bank writes.

The lira has already lost ground by mid-year.

At around 18 lira, you have to pay more local currency than ever before for one euro or dollar.

For European holidaymakers who pay for their purchases locally in lira, there can still be a bargain here and there, despite annual inflation of almost 80 percent recently.

For many Turks, on the other hand, vacationing in their own country is becoming increasingly unaffordable given the doubled costs.