ISTANBUL

The domestic tourism activities in Turkey posted a significant rise in the second quarter of this year after a tough year in the tourism sector due to the pandemic measures, according to the country's statistical authority on Thursday.

While the number of domestic visitors increased by 68.6% in the April-June period, year-on-year to reach nearly 9 million, residents spent 10.7 billion Turkish liras ($1.3 billion), up 203.2% over the same period, TurkStat said.

The US-dollar/Turkish lira exchange rate was 8.38 on average in the second quarter.

While 92.1% of the domestic tourism expenditure was individual, 7.9% of it was package tour expenditures.

The average expenditure per trip was 1,008 Turkish liras ($120) during the three-month period.

Eating and drinking took the lion's share from the domestic tourism expenditures with 28.9%, followed by transportation (27.6%) and accommodation (16.6%).

"It was observed that there were increases of 111.9% in eating and drinking expenditures, 162.9% in transportation expenditures, and 836.3% in accommodation expenditures," TurkStat said.

In the April-June period, the number of domestic trips soared by 78% on a yearly basis and reached 10.64 million.

"In this quarter, domestic visitors made 89 million overnights. The average number of overnights was 8.4," the institute added.

While the primary purpose of trips was visiting relatives with 61%, travel-leisure-vacation followed it with 27.6% and health with 6.2%.

Domestic visitors mostly chose to stay at their friends' and relatives' homes -- 64.34 million overnights. "Own house" took second place with 12.8 million overnights and hotel at third place with 6.27 million overnights.