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Türkiye’s tourism revenue rose 2.4% to a record $51.28 billion in the first nine months of 2026, the country’s culture and tourism minister said, even as wars in the region, airspace closures and higher energy prices weighed on international travel.
Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy told a parliamentary budget committee that 49.13 million visitors came to Türkiye between January and September. He said it was the highest nine-month income the country has recorded.
"The first nine months of 2026 were not an easy period for global tourism, Ersoy said. He said the results showed that Türkiye’s efforts to diversify its products and markets were paying off.
Visitors stayed an average of 10.34 nights, he said. Average spending per person per night rose 4.6% to $107.7. Foreign visitors spent an average of $119.90 per night.
Ersoy said Türkiye will enter 2027 amid "continuing and spreading wars," regional airspace closures and rising global energy prices that are pressuring demand for international travel.
He said the government would respond with a five-point strategy that focuses on holding demand in core markets while spreading tourism across all 81 provinces and all 12 months of the year, building new demand in high-growth regions such as the Americas, Asia, Africa and Australia, and working with airlines and tour operators to maintain flight capacity and add new direct routes.
Ersoy said museums and archaeological sites run by the ministry drew 28.5 million visitors through the end of October. The increase was about 35% from the same period last year.
The tourism minister said excavations are under way at 261 sites in 67 provinces under a project he called the largest archaeological mobilization in the republic’s history.
Total excavation and research projects are expected to reach 800 by year-end, with a goal of 820 in 2027. More than 32,000 archaeological finds have been uncovered over the past three years.
Türkiye brought back 126 cultural artifacts from abroad this year, Ersoy said, bringing the total returned since 2002 to 13,574.
The ministry has also begun using software to detect artifacts that may have been illegally removed from the country and are being offered at auctions and online galleries worldwide.
Ersoy said Türkiye will host the 49th session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Istanbul from June 27 to July 7, 2027.
The tourism minister also noted that the Antalya Museum is expected to open in 2027 after an expansion that will roughly triple its exhibition space, and that the first phase of work at Istanbul’s historic Haydarpasa station complex is due to be completed by the end of 2027.
The ministry’s 2027 budget, including affiliated institutions, is projected at ₺95.15 billion ($2 billion), Ersoy said.
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