Demand for Greece Lifts Restaurant and Hotel Turnover in July

Restaurants and hotels in Greece benefited from the strong tourist flows in July reporting an increase in turnover by 33 percent and 59.7 percent, respectively, said the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT).

More specifically, for businesses active in food and beverages (F&B), July turnover came to 266,398,024 euros up by 33.4 percent over the same month a year ago and 199,754,443 euros.

Accommodation services providers saw turnover surge by 59.7 percent in July to 1.5 billion euros compared to July 2021 and 949,372,488 euros.

In total, both hospitality and F&B enterprises – business activity directly connected to tourism – marked a 55.1 percent rise in overall turnover to 1.78 billion euros compared to the same month a year ago at 1.1 billion euros, ELSTAT said.

Leading the way in terms of stronger turnover in July in both accommodation and F&B compared to July 2021 was the regional unit of Thira (Santorini) marking a 91.1 percent rise while the regional unit of Magnesia reported the smallest increase by 14.9 percent.

Strong demand for Greece this year boosted second quarter (Q2) turnover for hotels to 2.051 billion euros up by 238.8 percent compared to 605.517.814 euros in Q2 2021, said ELSTAT, and in June, restaurant and hotel turnover was up by 141.4 percent compared to the same month in 2021.

ELSTAT’s data concerns enterprises obliged to double-entry bookkeeping, for which data are available on a monthly basis.

Overall, turnover for Greek businesses increased by 32.3 percent in the first half of the year (H1) compared to pre-Covid 2019 driven by in large part by improved tourism performance. According to ELSTAT data, H1 business turnover came to 202.76 billion euros compared to 145.97 billion euros in H1 2021 and 153.23 billion euros in the first half of 2019.