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Tourists are spending billions on food across Europe in 2026, while Türkiye leads a stunning culinary travel boom that is changing how travellers experience the continent. Across Europe, tourists are spending billions on food, local cuisine, dining experiences, and regional flavours. Meanwhile, Türkiye leads this stunning culinary travel boom with remarkable visitor spending on food and beverages. As culinary travel grows, food is becoming more than a holiday expense. It is becoming a reason to travel. From Türkiye to other European destinations, travellers are discovering unforgettable tastes, traditions, and dining cultures. Travel And Tour World urges readers to explore the entire story.

Türkiye Food Tourism Surges as Travellers Spend Nearly $6 Billion on Cuisine in Six Months

Türkiye is emerging as an increasingly important destination for travellers who plan holidays around food. Visitors spent nearly $5.9 billion on food and beverages during the first six months of 2026, according to figures reported from the Turkish Statistical Institute, or TÜİK.

The amount represents an increase of roughly 9 percent from the $5.43 billion recorded during the same period in 2025. Türkiye generated approximately $25.75 billion in tourism revenue between January and June 2026.

For international travellers, the figures highlight an important change. Eating is becoming a central part of experiencing Türkiye rather than simply another holiday expense.

Food Becomes a Major Part of Türkiye Travel

Türkiye offers travellers a culinary landscape that changes considerably from one region to another.

Visitors can find street food, traditional breakfasts, seafood, pastries, kebabs, vegetable dishes and desserts within the same country.

The official GoTürkiye tourism platform describes Turkish cuisine as diverse and strongly connected with local produce, traditional recipes and regional culinary traditions.

That diversity gives travellers another reason to explore beyond the country’s most famous attractions.

A trip to Istanbul, for example, can combine historic landmarks with local breakfast dishes, meze, seafood and traditional desserts.

Travellers heading into Anatolia can encounter very different regional flavours.

This makes food a useful way to understand the country’s geography and cultural heritage.

Nearly $6 Billion Signals Strong Culinary Demand

Food and beverage spending was the largest spending category highlighted in the first-half tourism figures reported by Hürriyet Daily News.

Clothing and footwear followed with about $2.20 billion, while visitors spent around $890 million on souvenirs. Spending connected with sports, education and cultural activities reached approximately $249 million.

The food figure therefore stands out for travellers and tourism businesses alike.

It suggests that visitors are allocating substantial portions of their travel budgets to dining and local culinary experiences.

The trend also fits Türkiye’s broader tourism development.

Official TÜİK data for January-March 2026 showed that food and beverage expenditure represented 27 percent of tourism income from visitors during the quarter. Food and beverage spending also increased 13.7 percent year on year in that period.

Europe’s Biggest Food Tourism Destinations Where Travellers Spend Billions

Türkiye’s nearly $6 billion food-and-beverage spending figure places culinary travel firmly in the spotlight. Across Europe, several major destinations also generate enormous visitor spending through restaurants, cafés, local food experiences and hospitality. However, national statistical systems measure these expenses differently. Spain publishes detailed food-and-drink expenditure for international visitors, while France, Italy, Greece and Portugal mainly report broader tourism receipts. For travellers, the wider trend remains significant. Food is becoming an important part of destination spending. These five European destinations show how cuisine can influence tourism economies while giving visitors another reason to explore beyond famous landmarks.

1. Spain: A European Leader in Visitor Food Spending

Spain provides one of the clearest comparisons with Türkiye because its National Statistics Institute, INE, separately records international tourist spending on food and drinks. In June 2025, international visitors spent €2.094 billion on food and drinks, representing 16.1% of their total monthly expenditure. That category increased 10.1% from June 2024. Spain also recorded €134.712 billion in total international tourist expenditure during 2025, up 6.8% year on year. The country’s scale makes the food sector especially important for travellers. Visitors can combine Barcelona sightseeing with Catalan cuisine, explore Madrid’s traditional food culture, or build coastal holidays around seafood. Spain’s 2025 tourism performance also included 96.8 million international visitors, demonstrating the enormous potential customer base for restaurants and food businesses. For travellers, Spain offers a strong alternative to Türkiye for a holiday where dining can be planned alongside culture, beaches and city exploration.

2. Italy: Billions Flow Into a Food-Focused Tourism Economy

Italy is another major European destination where food forms a central part of the visitor experience. Bank of Italy data show the country’s international tourism economy operating at enormous scale, with foreign visitor spending continuing to grow during 2025. Provisional first-quarter data showed spending by foreign travellers increased by 6.4% year on year. A directly comparable 2025 nationwide food-only figure is not presented in the Bank of Italy’s headline tourism release, so it would be misleading to assign a precise food-spending total without a supporting dataset. Earlier official and government-referenced tourism research, however, identified food and wine expenditure by foreign visitors as a multibillion-euro market. Italy’s attraction is easy to understand from a traveller perspective. Visitors can move from Roman food traditions to Tuscan dishes, Sicilian seafood, Neapolitan pizza and northern Italian cuisine within one trip. The country’s huge tourism footprint also strengthens local restaurants, markets, cafés and food producers. Italy recorded one of Europe’s largest tourism accommodation markets in 2025, with 476.9 million nights, according to Eurostat. That scale gives food tourism a major platform.

3. France: A €77.5 Billion International Tourism Market

France provides another powerful example of tourism spending feeding the food and hospitality economy. In 2025, foreign tourists generated €77.5 billion in international tourism revenue, according to Atout France, the country’s tourism development agency. The figure represented a 9% increase from 2024 and marked a record level. France does not publish a directly comparable headline figure showing exactly how many billions foreign tourists spent specifically on food and drinks. Nevertheless, restaurants and food experiences remain deeply connected with the French visitor economy. Travellers can experience Parisian cafés, regional cuisine in Lyon, seafood in coastal destinations and wine-and-food traditions across numerous regions. INSEE also maintains official data covering restaurant and catering activity, demonstrating the substantial size and continuing economic importance of the food-service sector. For travellers, France demonstrates how cuisine can become part of the destination itself. A French itinerary can therefore be built around museums and monuments while also using restaurants, markets and regional dishes as major travel experiences.

4. Greece: More Than €23 Billion in Travel Receipts

Greece has also created a huge tourism economy around destinations where food is closely connected with local culture. The Bank of Greece reported that travel receipts reached €23.627 billion in 2025, increasing 9.4% from 2024. International traveller numbers increased 6.4%, while average expenditure per overnight stay reached €96.60. Greece does not publish a directly comparable national headline figure for foreign tourists’ food-and-beverage spending, so that number should not be invented or inferred. The broader tourism data, however, demonstrate the scale of visitor spending available to accommodation, restaurants and other tourism businesses. The Southern Aegean generated €6.625 billion in travel receipts, while Attica produced €5.838 billion and Crete €4.343 billion. For travellers, these regions offer particularly strong opportunities to combine food with scenery. Visitors can explore Greek island cuisine, seafood, traditional tavernas, local cheeses and regional dishes while travelling through popular destinations.

5. Portugal: A €29.1 Billion Tourism Economy With Record Restaurant Activity

Portugal is another destination where food increasingly forms part of the visitor journey. Turismo de Portugal reports that tourism receipts reached €29.1 billion in 2025, an increase of 5% from the previous year. Foreign guests accounted for 19.7 million of the country’s 32.5 million accommodation guests. Portugal’s tourism authorities also reported that foreign bank-card spending reached €8.4 billion across 225.2 million transactions in 2025. Importantly for this comparison, the official tourism agency said the restaurant sector surpassed previous records. The card-spending figure covers purchases made by foreign cards and is therefore broader than food spending alone, but it shows the scale of international visitor consumption. Travellers can experience Portugal through Lisbon’s traditional eateries, Porto’s food culture, Algarve seafood and Madeira’s regional specialities. The combination of rising tourism receipts, international visitors and strong restaurant activity makes Portugal an increasingly attractive choice for gastronomic travellers.

European Food Tourism Spending: Key Data at a Glance

What These Numbers Mean for Travellers

The comparison shows that Türkiye is not alone in turning visitor spending on food into a major tourism story. Spain provides the strongest direct comparison because its official statistics separately identify food and drink expenditure by international visitors. France, Italy, Greece and Portugal demonstrate the broader scale of Europe’s culinary tourism economy through their substantial international tourism receipts and restaurant activity. For travellers, this creates more opportunities to design holidays around local cuisine rather than treating meals as an afterthought. A trip through Europe can connect landmarks with markets, traditional restaurants, regional producers and local dishes. As tourism becomes increasingly experience-driven, food offers destinations another powerful way to attract visitors and encourage them to spend more time and money within local communities.

Conclusion

Europe’s culinary travel boom is changing how tourists experience the continent in 2026. Türkiye stands out with nearly $6 billion in food and beverage spending, while Spain, Italy, France, Greece, and Portugal also show the enormous value of visitor spending. For travellers, these figures reveal an exciting opportunity to explore Europe through its food, regional traditions, markets, restaurants, and local flavours. Moreover, culinary experiences can turn an ordinary holiday into a deeper cultural journey. As tourists continue spending billions on food across Europe, Türkiye’s stunning culinary travel boom highlights a powerful trend. Food is no longer simply part of travel. Increasingly, food itself is becoming the destination.