According to the results of the Visa Mediterranean Tourism Analysis 2023 report, which provides insights into the card usage trends of foreign tourists travelling in Europe's Mediterranean coastal countries announced by Visa, turkey recorded high double-digit growth in both the number of visitors and foreign card usage in the field of tourism in 2023 and broke an all-time tourism record. Looking at the last year, the analysis, which reveals that the number of card visitors in Turkey in 2023 increased by nearly 20 per cent compared to 2022, and the expenditures made by tourists with their cards increased by more than 16 per cent on a foreign currency basis, also points to the areas where Turkey is competitive in the field of tourism by examining the card usage of tourists in Spain, France, Italy, Portugal, Greece, Malta and Croatia, which are located on the Mediterranean coast in addition to Turkey.
According to the results of the analysis showing that Turkey is the growing star of the Mediterranean in tourism in the last 5 years, average foreign card expenditures in the last 5 years have doubled in the Mediterranean basin, while in the same period, Turkey has reached a size close to 3 times the 2018 level. Thus, it is seen that there has been a very serious momentum in the field of tourism since 2018 after the pandemic. In 2023, while health tourism accounts for an average of 2 percent of tourism expenditures in the Mediterranean basin, this figure corresponds to 6 percent of tourist expenditures in our country.
According to the results of the analysis, one of the most striking findings of which is that one out of every 5 tourists who visited Turkey in 2022 will prefer Turkey again in 2023 and that these tourists, who visited our country for the second time, use approximately 60 percent more cards than an average tourist, the contribution of health expenditures made with foreign cards in Turkey to total tourism was 3 times higher than the average of the Mediterranean basin. Similarly, the jewellery, accessories and food and beverage categories, which recorded the highest growth, also point to areas where Turkey is competitive. On the other hand, retail shopping is by far the leading category in the expenditures made by tourists in Turkey with a rate close to 40 per cent. In this respect, Turkey differs from other Mediterranean countries where accommodation and food and beverage are at the forefront, and the second most important category where tourists spend the most is accommodation and food and beverage with 30 per cent.
According to the analysis, the top four tourism corridors in terms of the number of card visitors to Turkey in 2023 were the UK, the US, Germany and Saudi Arabia, while Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates ranked the top four in terms of per-card usage.
In addition, Istanbul ranked first in card usage, followed by Antalya and Muğla, while tourists from Saudi Arabia and Americans spent the most with their cards in Istanbul. In Antalya, the capital of tourism, tourists from the UK and Germany, and in Muğla, tourists from the UK and the USA were recorded as the tourists who spent the most with their cards.