Greece 2023 Tourism Gets Off to a Good Start in January
Tourist activity in Greece got off to a good start in January with travel receipts increasing by 71.9 percent year-on-year to 224.2 million euros up from 130.5 euros in the same month in 2022, according to provisional data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG) this week.
More specifically, receipts generated by EU country residents rose by 23.7 percent to 95.1 million euros and by non-EU travelers by 141.4 percent to 128.9 million euros from 53.4 million euros a year earlier.
Central bank analysts attribute the increase in travel receipts to an 86.1 percent rise in inbound travelers despite the 7.6 percent drop in average spending per trip.
Key source markets driving the strong performance in tourism-related spending in January were Germany, with receipts up by 13.3 percent to 22.3 million euros; France up by 168.4 percent to 12.1 million euros; the UK by 48.3 percent to 20.2 million euros; and the US by 10.4 percent to 8.1 million euros. On the downside, receipts from Russia marked a 67.5 percent drop to 0.4 million euros.
In the first month of the year, the number of incoming travelers increased by 86.1 percent year-on-year to 635.5 thousand. More specifically, arrivals through Greece’s airports increased by 70.1 percent compared to January 2022, and by 144.1 percent through road border-crossing points.
The BoG attributes the increase to stronger traveler flows from both within the EU, up by 48.9 percent, and outside the EU which increased by 137.2 percent.
Tourists visiting Greece in January were mainly from Germany marking a 19.2 percent to 64.6 thousand; France, up by 98.9 percent to 31.5 thousand; the UK by 78.2 percent to 59.5 thousand; and the US stronger by 40.8 percent to 15.2 thousand.
Overall, the number of travelers from EU countries rose by 40.6 percent to 210.2 thousand and from non-EU territories by 75.0 percent to 84.0 thousand.
Traffic through Greece’s airports in January surpassed both 2022 and pre-Covid 2019 levels for the same month, according to the Hellenic Civil Aviation Authority (HCAA) .
Athens International Airport (AIA), the 24 airports run by the HCAA and the country’s 14 regional airports managed by Fraport Greece handled a total of 2,202,735 passengers (arrivals and departures) in January 2023 compared to 1,249,387 in January 2022 and 2,135,674 in 2019, marking a 76.3 percent rise over last year and a 3.1 percent increase against 2019.