Greece Jan.-Sept. Tourism Income Rises by 11%, Arrivals Up by 20%

An increased number of international arrivals to Greece boosted tourism revenue for the first nine months of 2014 to 12 billion euros, the central bank said last week.

According to the Bank of Greece figures, travel receipts for the January-September period rose by 10.9 percent compared to the same period last year.

Arrivals of non-residents for the same period increased by 20 percent.

On the negative side, average spending per trip for the nine-month period dropped by 7.5 percent to 47 euros and spending per night by 3.2 percent.

According to central bank data, the travel balance for the January-September period increased by 11.2 percent, recording a surplus of 10,464 million euros compared to 9,407 million euros in the corresponding 2013 period.

The rise is mainly due to the 10.9 percent increase in travel receipts at 1,182 million euros, offset in part by the concurrent 8.9 percent rise in travel payments at 125 million euros.

In the meantime, revenue from incoming German tourists increased by 4.5 percent to 1,730 million euros, from French tourists by 24.2 percent at 1,037 million euros, from UK tourists by 16.5 percent to 1,397 million euros and from US tourists by 21.9 percent at 581 million euros.

There was an 11.2 percent drop of revenue from Russian tourists at 1,104 million euros.

A total 3,118 cruise ships arrived in Greece during the January- September period compared to 3,381 arrivals in 2013.