Greece Jan-Feb 2017 Tourism Revenue Down

Andrianou Street in Plaka. Photo © Maria Theofanopoulou

Tourism revenue was down by 2.7 percent in the first two months of the year compared to the same period in 2016 at 310 million euros, according to tentative data released last week by the Bank of Greece.

The central bank report cites lagging tourism traffic, down by 2.8 percent (or 965,000), and limited travel spending which came to 317 euros on average.

According to the data, February marked the greatest decline in revenue by 3.1 percent to 145 million euros against 2016 (150 million euros) a 5.5 percent drop of average spending per trip at 322.1 euros.

More specifically, travel receipts in the first two months of 2017 fell by 6.8 percent from non-EU residents to 138 million euros, while takings from EU nationals increased by 1 percent to 168 million euros.

Indicatively, German travelers boosted two-month revenues by 13.4 percent to 37 million euros, while receipts from French and UK tourists decreased by 10 percent to 9 million euros and 3.9 percent to 25 million euros, respectively.

Meanwhile, tourism traffic for the January-February period declined by 2.8 percent to 965,000 travelers against 992,000 in the same period in 2016. Inbound traffic from Germany grew by 40.9 percent in the January-February at 98,000 travelers but dropped by 27.7 percent to 17,000 visitors from France. At the same time, the number of visitors from Russia surged by 74.6 percent to 17,000 and from the US by 45.5 percent to 41,000.