Domestic health-related travel spending tops 10.6 bln liras

ANKARA

Turks make some 576,000 trips for health purposes in the first quarter 2026, spending a total of 10.63 billion Turkish liras, accorfing to official data.

Domestic tourists in Türkiye spent 10.63 billion Turkish Liras ($225 million) on health-related travel in the first quarter, official data has shown.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute’s (TÜİK), household domestic tourism statistics, domestic travelers spent a total of 102.3 billion liras on trips within the country during the January-March period.

Visiting relatives, leisure and vacation trips accounted for the bulk of expenditures, while health remained one of the key reasons for travel.

A total of 576,000 trips were made for health purposes in the first quarter of last year. These trips generated 6.14 million overnight stays, with an average stay of 10.6 nights.

Spending on health-related travel, which stood at 9.88 billion liras in the first quarter of last year, exceeded the 10 billion lira threshold for the first time, reaching 10.63 billion liras in the January-March period.

Meanwhile, the number of trips made for meetings, conferences, courses and seminars totaled 206,000 during the same period. These trips accounted for 494,000 overnight stays, with an average stay of 2.4 nights.

Expenditures related to travel for meetings and other purposes amounted to 2.41 billion liras in the first quarter, compared with 902 million liras in the same period a year earlier.

In the commercial relations and trade fair category, spending on 164,000 trips reached 2.22 billion liras in the first quarter. Comparable spending in the January-March period of 2025 was 808 million liras.

Combined spending in the health, meetings and trade fair categories totaled 15.25 billion liras in the first quarter of the year.