Domestic travel for visiting relatives surpassed hotel vacations

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TURKSTAT) domestic tourism data for the first half of 2026, it was announced that due to rising hotel and accommodation prices and economic conditions, citizens have turned to visiting relatives and hometowns instead of taking holidays in order to avoid accommodation expenses. Due to high accommodation costs, citizens who had to prefer sofa beds in their relatives' homes instead of hotels allocated the first place in total travel expenditures of 257.3 billion liras for the January-June period to family and relative visits with 115 billion 429 million liras.

According to TURKSTAT data, in the first six months of 2026, expenditures made for "sightseeing, entertainment, and holiday" purposes fell behind relative visits with 107 billion 752 million liras. In the same period of the previous year, the budget allocated for visiting relatives was at the level of 85.2 billion liras. While 19 million 541 thousand trips were made for the purpose of visiting relatives during the January-June period, 114 million 623 thousand overnight stays were made on these trips. In contrast, in 8 million 685 thousand trips made for sightseeing and holiday purposes, the number of overnight stays remained at 30 million 366 thousand.

According to TÜRK-İŞ data, as of August 2026, the hunger threshold for a family of four reached 37 thousand 388 liras, and the poverty threshold reached 121 thousand 786 liras. Intercity bus tickets, fuel expenses, and mandatory food expenditures during travel constituted the major part of the 115.4 billion lira budget spent by the public for mandatory relative visits.