Greece’s Travel Receipts Rise in January-June

Receipts generate H1 balance of Greece’s travel services surplus

A 15.3 percent rise in travel receipts has generated a surplus of 4,150 million euros from a surplus of 3,693 million euros (2018) in the balance of travel services for the first six months of 2019, according to provisional data released this week by the Bank of Greece.

Meanwhile, in the January-June 2019 period, a 732 million euro increase in travel receipts is attributed to a 15.9 percent rise in average expenditure per trip.

For the month of June, travel receipts increased by 16.4 percent year-on-year with receipts from EU residents up by 14.3 percent to 1,824 million euros and by non-EU travelers stronger by 21.9 percent.

Broken down: receipts from Germany rose by 13.9 percent to 450 million euros, from France by 54.0 percent to 181 million euros, and from the UK by 0.4 percent to 390 million euros.

On the downside, receipts generated in June by US travelers dropped by 6.8 percent to 133 million euros and from Russia down by 7.8 percent to 59 million euros.

For the first half of the year, travel receipts grew by 15.3 percent against the same period in 2018 to 5,509 million euros driven by a 9.7 percent rise in receipts from EU residents at 3,643 million euros, and by a 29.6 percent increase in receipts from non-residents at 1,691 million euros.

Arrivals to Greece

Meanwhile, according to the central bank report, the number of incoming travelers in June came to 4,102 thousand, compared with 4,104 thousand in June last year.

Visitor flows through Greek airports grew by 2.8 percent, but dropped by 10.2 percent through road border-crossing points.

In the same month, the number of EU visitors increased by 9.0 percent to 1,554 thousand, while non-euro area holidaymakers decreased by 12.3 percent with those from Germany up by 4.1 percent and from France increased by 29.5 percent.

On the downside, the number of UK travelers dropped by 5.5 percent as did those from the US down by 10.2 percent and from Russia by 14.1 percent.

The January-June 2019 period saw the overall number of inbound visitors decline by 0.5 percent to 9,407 thousand with flows through airports up by 4.2 percent but down by 12.7 percent through road border-crossing points.