Greece Arrival Numbers on the Rise, Revenue Shrinking

Despite growing arrival numbers, Greek tourism has failed to meet expectations with the balance of travel services marking an 8.8 percent drop in the first eight months of 2016 against last year, the Bank of Greece said.

At the same time, travel spending per trip declined by 9 percent. Net receipts from travel services offset 78.6 percent of the goods deficit and accounted for 77.7 percent of total net receipts from services.

According to the central bank figures released this week, travel receipts in January-August 2016 came to 9,853 million euros, down by 7.1 percent compared to the same period in 2015, attributed to lower receipts from both within the EU28 (down by 4.4 percent to 6,786 million euros) and outside the EU28 (down 15.4 percent to 2,709 million euros).

Specifically, receipts from Germany dropped by 8.4 percent to 1,442 million  euros, from France by 24.3 percent to 706 million euros and from the UK by 13.2 percent to 1,386 million euros.

Meanwhile, the number of incoming travelers in the January-August 2016 grew by 1.3 percent to 17,195 thousand against 16,968 thousand a year earlier. Indicatively, arrivals by air rose by 6.1 percent, while those by road fell by 9.5 percent. Arrivals from Germany rose by 10.6 percent to 2,023 thousand and from the UK by 7.7 percent to 1,929 thousand, while those from France fell by 11.2 percent to 978 thousand. The number of Russian visitors also grew by 12.4 percent to 395 thousand and from the US by 5.3 percent to 551 thousand.