Bank of Greece: Foreign Visitors Up, Travel Receipts Down in Jan-Sep 2016

The number of non-resident inbound visitors to Greece increased by 6.1 percent but travel receipts decreased by 7.9 percent, according to Bank of Greece data concerning the developments in the balance of travel services for January-September 2016.

Based on final data released on Monday, the balance of travel services posted a surplus of 10,258 million euros in the first nine months of 2016, down 9.0 percent from a surplus of 11,269 million euros in January-September 2015.

According to Bank of Greece data, this was due to a decrease of 1,007 million euros or 7.9 percent in travel receipts and to an increase of 5 million euros or 0.3 percent in travel payments.

The decrease in travel receipts in January-September 2016 over the same period of 2015 was mainly driven by a fall in average expenditure per trip by 75 euros or 13.2 percent, as the number of non-resident inbound visitors increased by 6.1 percent.

Specifically, expenditure per overnight stay dropped by 8.8 percent, while the average length of stay fell by 4.9 percent year-on-year to 7.2 nights. Overnight stays in January-September 2016 increased by 1.0 percent to 171,754 thousand, from 170,063 thousand in the first nine months of 2015.

More into the data, during the first nine months of the year, travel receipts from Germany fell by 8.5 percent to 1,837 million euros and those from France by 25.8 percent to 826 million euros. Receipts from the United Kingdom also fell, by 7.4 percent to 1,730 million euros. Regarding non-EU28 countries, receipts from Russia rose by 2.9 percent to 401 million euros, while those from the United States fell by 26.1 percent to 633 million euros.

In regards to arrivals during the January-September 2016 period, visitors from Germany increased by 6.2 percent to 2,536 thousand, while those from France fell by 11.6 percent to 1,186 thousand. Visitors from the United Kingdom increased by 15.6 percent to 2,456 thousand. Visitors from Russia rose by 18.9 percent to 525 thousand and those from the United States dropped by 2.8 percent to 640 thousand.