Greece Tourism Revenue Down in January

Greek tourism revenue declined by 2.4 percent in the first month of the year, according to data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG) last week.

In January, travel receipts fell by 2.4 percent compared to the same month in 2016. More specifically, receipts from EU residents grew by 1.8 percent, while those from residents of countries outside the EU dropped by 6.6 percent.

Indicatively, travel receipts came to 165 million euros, while travel payments grew by 15 percent to 150 million euros limiting the travel balance surplus to 15 million euros against 39 million euros in January 2016. The central bank cites a 6.9 percent decline in incoming traffic for the figures.

For January, travelers from Germany boosted receipts by 11.9 percent to 21 million euros, while revenue from French travelers fell by 54.9 percent to 2 million euros as well as from the UK down by 2.5 percent to 12 million euros. Travel receipts from Russia grew by a massive 177.3 percent to 7 million euros, and from the US by 7.5 percent to 13 million euros.

Meanwhile, inbound traffic came to 520,000 travelers for January, down by 6.9 percent compared to the same month in 2016. The number of travelers from Germany increased by 33.1 percent to 51,000, while those from France fell by 42.4 percent to 6,000. Tourist traffic from the UK grew by 20.2 percent to 36,000, from Russia by 285.9 percent to 11,000, and from the US by 24.3 percent to 20,000.