International Arrivals to Greece Down 6.2% in January-March

International arrivals to Greece dropped by 6.2 percent in the first three months of the year, compared with the same period in 2015, according to a border survey conducted by the Bank of Greece and released by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) on Friday.

In total, during January-March, a total of 1,620,971 travellers arrived in Greece.

According to the data, arrivals from Europe — which accounts for the majority of arrivals of non-residents to Greece (82.9 percent) — recorded a decrease of 4.9 percent in January-March 2016 compared with the same period of 2015. Arrivals from EU Member States recorded a decrease of 9.3 percent.

In regards to European countries, a significant decrease, in absolute values, is observed in arrivals from Bulgaria (-23.6 percent), Romania (-36.8 percent) and Italy (-25.8 percent) while a significant increase, in absolute values, is recorded in arrivals from Albania (31.7 percent), Belgium (492.2 percent), Russia (134.9 percent) and Poland (69.2 percent).

During January-March 2016, Greece saw a drop in the arrivals from other continents such as Asia and Turkey (-46.6 percent).

In regards to the contribution of arrivals by country of origin, the largest contribution of arrivals from the European countries are from Bulgaria (20.3 percent), FYROM (11.7 percent), Albania (9.1 percent), Germany (7.2 percent) and United Kingdom (6.6 percent).

The data also revealed that most arrivals to Greece last year were made by road and air.

The main points of entry which account for the biggest percentage of traffic, by road, are Evzoni (9.1 percent) and Promahonas (7.8 percent) and by air include the airport in Athens (38.4 percent) and Thessaloniki (7.0 percent).