Greece Saw Tourist Arrivals Up In August But Less Money Spent By Visitors

Tourists did flock to Greece in August but it seems that they did not spend much money, according to a survey conducted by the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels and the TNS ICAP and Quantros companies.

The survey showed that the growth in the number of foreign tourists’ arrivals did not correspond with revenue collected from tourism spending.

Last August, the average daily spending of foreign tourists in Greece – including hotel expenses – was only 78 euros.

“To just talk about the number of arrivals is a joke,” the president of the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, Yiorgos Tsakiris, told journalists during a recent press conference when referring to the inconsistency observed between arrivals and tourist receipts.

For example, the Region of Central Macedonia recorded the highest number of overnight stays in August (1.021 million visitors) but had the lowest revenue out of all of Greece’s destinations (average daily spending was 50.4 euros).

In contrast, the Region of South Aegean, which includes the Cyclades and the Dodecanese, counted almost the same number of arrivals (1.007 million) and had twice the income (average daily spending was 96.4 euros).

Overall, according to the survey, the average length of stay of tourists that month was eight days, while the average spend per visitor did not exceed 632 euros.

Nevertheless, Greece welcomed 3.9 million tourists in August who spent 2.5 billion euros, which means that 22 percent of the total number of visitors in Greece this year came in August alone and contributed 21.6 percent of the annual tourism revenue.

The survey showed that 75 percent of the revenue came from customers of Greek hotels.