May Travel Receipts, Traffic to Greece on the Rise

Travel revenue and incoming tourism traffic rose in May, by 1.7 and 1.5 percent year-on-year respectively, according to Bank of Greece data released this week.

More specifically, central bank figures place May travel receipts up by 1.7 percent and inbound traveler flows by 1.5 percent to 1,982,000.

Revenue from EU nationals grew by 2.8 percent to 740 million euros. For the January-May 2017 period, travel receipts also rose slightly by 0.9 percent year-on-year to 2,067 million euros. Receipts from cruise travel dropped slightly by 0.8 percent. French and German travelers dug deeper into their pockets, up by 19.4 percent and 14.4 percent respectively, while US, UK and Russian visitors spent less, down by 30.8 percent, 0.7 percent and 1.5 percent respectively.

At the same time, inbound visitor flows through airports increased by 6.1 percent in May, with EU travelers up by 7.2 percent to 839,000. For the January-May 2017 period, the number of incoming travelers rose by 2.4 percent – through airports up by 8.4 percent – to 4,584.000 against 4,475,000 in the same period last year.

Meanwhile, average traveler spending per trip for the January-May 2017 period dropped by 1.5 percent to 430.4 euros.