Greek Tourism Receipts Plunge After Covid-19 Lockdowns

Greek tourism receipts and incoming traffic took a hard hit in April after Covid-19 brought global travel to a standstill sinking the number of traveler arrivals in Greece by 96.2 percent and incoming revenue by 98.7 percent.

According to provisional data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG) this week, travel receipts in April slid to 7 million euros from 544 million euros in April 2019, with travel payments down by 99.2 percent to 3 million euros from 332 million euros in April 2019.

At the same time, the number of inbound visitors nosedived by 96.2 percent in April with flows through airports – due to Covid-19 lockdowns – down to nearly zero and inbound traffic through road border-crossing points down by 88.3 percent.

Central bank analysts cite the 96.2 percent decline in travel receipts to weak inbound traveler flows and to a 62.2 percent decrease in average spending per trip.

Overall, in the first four months of the year (January-April 2020), travel receipts tumbled by 51.4 (or 664 million euros) to 626 million euros, with travel payments down 52.3 percent (or 478 million euros) to 436 million euros.

Again, analysts attribute the poor performance to a 21.5 percent decrease in average spending per trip and a 36.1 percent slowdown of inbound traveler flows.

In the January-April 2020 period, travel receipts were down by 51.4 percent to a total of 626 million euros compared to the same period in 2019 driven by a 58.4 percent decline in receipts from EU residents to 245 million euros and by a 42.0 percent drop from non-EU residents to 377 million euros.

In the four-month period, the number of inbound visitors dropped by 36.1 percent to 1,866 thousand against 2,918 thousand in the January-April period a year earlier, with airports welcoming 43.1 percent fewer visitors and road border-crossing points 22.3 percent fewer.