In July, the number of foreign tourists in Turkey fell for the first time in five years, as the appreciation of the Turkish lira impacted the tourism industry.

In July, the number of foreign tourists arriving in Turkey for the first time in five years declined, causing concerns about the impact of the appreciation of the lira on capital flows. Data from the Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism on Friday showed that the number of foreign tourists in July decreased by 5% year-on-year to 6.97 million. This is the first decline in July data since the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. For Turkey, which relies heavily on summer tourism to reduce the current account deficit and increase foreign exchange reserves, this is a worrying sign. Under the policy makers' implemented actual appreciation strategy, where the exchange rate depreciates slower than the monthly inflation rate decreases, the lira has increased relative to inflation over the past year. The central bank previously stated that actual appreciation is a natural result of tight monetary policy, which is necessary to curb the 33.5% annual inflation rate. Data also shows that the number of foreign tourists arriving in the first seven months of this year decreased by 2.1% compared to the same period last year.