Greece 10-month Travel Receipts Mark Significant Rise
Tourists visiting Greece this year spent more in the first 10 months of the year to October boosting travel receipts to 17,114.8 million euros, said the Bank of Greece (BoG) in its latest report.
More specifically, travel receipts increased by 70.4 percent in the January-October period compared to the same period in 2021 but were still down by 2.6 percent over the 10-month period in pre-pandemic 2019.
BoG analysts attribute the rise to more spending by travelers from EU countries which was up by 49.0 percent to 9,827.0 million euros and by non-EU residents up by 110.5 percent to 6,927.8 million euros.
Top source markets for Greece in the January-October period were Germany with traveler receipts up by 37.9 percent to 3,117.8 million euros, France by 29.1 percent to 1,256.6 million euros, the UK by 122.7 percent to 3,128.3 million euros and the US by 86.4 percent to 1,057.3 million euros, while receipts from Russia dropped by 65.0 percent to 34.5 million euros.
The number of inbound tourists from January to October increased by 92.1 percent to 26,443.1 thousand, compared to the same 10-month period in 2021 and 13,763.2 thousand travelers. More specifically, flows were up by 84.7 percent through airports and by 135.8 percent via road border check points.
Meanwhile, reflecting the increase in tourism in the fall due to the extended season, travel receipts rose year-on-year by 16.7 percent in October over the same month a year ago and by 3.3 percent compared to October 2019 while inbound traveler flows were up by 28.6 percent over 2022 but down by 0.6 percent over 2019.
October travel receipts increased to 1,510.4 million euros compared to 1,294.3 million euros in October 2021 generated in large part by travelers from Germany (369.8 million euros), France (84.7 million euros), UK (256.7 million euros), US (133.7 million euros).
“The best October of all time for tourism with revenues of over 1.5 billion euros. An increase of 3.3 percent compared to 2019,” said Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias commenting on the October data.