Greece Sees Tourist Arrivals, Revenue Rise in Jan-July

Greece attracted almost 12 million tourists during the first seven months of the year, according to data released on Tuesday by the Bank of Greece.

According to the data, the number of inbound travellers to Greece in the January-July 2015 period increased by 14.2 percent to 11.97 million, compared to 10.48 million visitors during the same period last year.

The increase in arrivals resulted to travel receipts increasing by 6.2 percent year-on-year to some 6.7 billion euros.

This development is attributed to higher receipts, mainly from within the EU28 (up 10.2 percent to 4.2 billion euros) and to a lesser extent from outside the EU28 (up 1.2 percent to 2.6 billion euros). In particular, receipts from euro area residents increased by 1.2 percent to stand at 2.5 billion, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries rose by 27 percent to 1.7 billion, the Bank of Greece data showed.

Receipts from the United Kingdom increased by 37.2 percent, while those from Germany rose by 9.8 percent. Receipts from France fell by 2.2 percent.

Turning to non-EU28 countries, receipts from the United States increased by 16.9 percent, while receipts from Russia fell by 69.7 percent.