Bank of Greece: Jan-April Arrivals Down by 5.3%

Bank of Greece figures this week showed that January-April arrivals to the country dropped by 5.3 percent while travel receipts also were down by 3.4 percent.

The balance of travel services showed a surplus of 280 million euros in April, down 10.0 percent from a surplus of 311 million euros in April 2015. More specifically, travel receipts fell by 7.0 percent to 443 million euros in April, from 477 million euros in the same month of 2015.

April spending by EU travelers declined by 23.5 percent to 211 million euros compared to 275 million euros in April 2015, while receipts from outside the EU rose by 16.4 percent. Indicatively, receipts from Germany fell by 50.7 percent to 31 million euros, while those from France decreased by 16.6 percent, from the United Kingdom by 6.6 percent and from Russia by 18.1 percent. On a positive note, receipts from the United States rose by 21.9 percent to 57 million euros.

Central bank provisional data also revealed that the number of incoming visitors (which excludes cruise travel) in April dropped by 3.5 percent year-on-year to 902 thousand, with arrivals from Germany down by 34.2 percent and from France by 12.5 percent. In the meantime, UK arrivals grew by 12.0 percent, from Russia by 70.8 percent and from the US by 50.9 percent.