By Bosphorus News Life Desk
Türkiye's foreign visitor entries fell 2.96% in the first half of 2026, while Greece recorded a 15% increase in international tourist arrivals. Southern Mediterranean Europe grew 4% over the same period, while global arrivals rose just 0.4%.
UN Tourism estimated that 690 million tourists travelled internationally between January and June, about 3 million more than a year earlier. Global arrivals rose 2% in the first quarter, then fell 1% in the second. June was down 3% year on year. The agency linked the weaker figures to the Middle East conflict, higher oil prices, inflation and rising travel costs.
Europe recorded 3% growth in international arrivals during the first half. Southern Mediterranean Europe grew 4%, with UN Tourism saying some destinations benefited from travel redirected from the Middle East. Arrivals in the Middle East fell 22%.
Greece recorded a 15% increase in international arrivals and a 15% rise in tourism receipts. Bank of Greece data show inbound traveller flows up 15.4% to 13.49 million in January-June, while travel receipts rose 14.8% to €8.80 billion.
Türkiye recorded a decline in foreign visitor entries. Ministry of Culture and Tourism data show 20.77 million foreign visitors entered the country in the first six months, down 2.96% from the same period of 2025. June entries fell 4.02% to 5.54 million.
TÜİK's second-quarter figures were weaker as well. The number of visitors fell 5.1% year on year to 15.58 million in April-June, while tourism revenue declined 2.6% to $15.87 billion.
Türkiye recorded $25.746 billion in tourism revenue in the first six months, according to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's September 27 World Tourism Day message. Erdoğan said the government expects full-year tourism revenue to reach $65 billion.
The gap between visitor volume and tourism revenue has been a recurring issue in Türkiye's tourism model, with the economics of the country's low-cost tourism model and its $100 billion revenue gap raising a broader question about how much more value the sector can generate.
The 2028 target is $100 billion. Türkiye generated $65.2 billion in tourism revenue in 2025, leaving a roughly $35 billion gap between the two figures.
The government's 2026 estimate has also come down. The September 2026 Medium-Term Program revised the tourism revenue forecast from $68 billion to $65 billion.
The Greece-Türkiye comparison is not a direct statistical ranking. UN Tourism measures international tourist arrivals, Türkiye's ministry reports foreign visitor entries, and Greece's national data use an inbound traveller series. The definitions differ. Across the datasets, Greece gained visitors during the first half of the year while Türkiye lost foreign entries.
UN Tourism has also cut its 2026 global forecast. It now expects international tourist arrivals to grow 1% to 2%, down from its January forecast of 3% to 4%. For September-December, 45% of tourism experts surveyed expect better results than a year earlier, 34% expect similar results and 21% expect worse results.
Sources: UN Tourism World Tourism Barometer, TÜİK, Bank of Greece, Türkiye Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Türkiye Directorate of Communications, Bosphorus News review and reporting.