Greece Travel Receipts, Revenue on Downward Trend

As forecast by local sector professionals, revenue from tourism shrunk in the first six months of 2016 with travel receipts decreasing by 7.9 percent or 330 million euros compared to the same period last year, according to figures released on Wednesday by the Bank of Greece.

The drop is mainly due to reduced spending per trip by 47 euros or 9.4 percent. Indicatively, spending per night fell by 8.3 percent in the January-June period to 68 euros compared to 74 euros in 2015.

On the upside, cruise tourism increased with 1,487 arrivals in the January-June period against 1,490 last year, bringing 1,783 thousand passengers compared to 1,626 thousand in 2015. Total revenue from cruise ship travelers grew by 14.2 percent to 177 million euros against 2015.

Meanwhile, revenue from German travelers dropped by 11.7 percent to 597 million euros, from the French by 26.1 percent to 236 million euros, and from UK travelers by 5.0 percent to 602 million euros.