Greece Sees Decline in 2016 Tourism Revenue, Despite Arrivals Increase

Tourism revenue dropped by 6.5 percent to 13.2 billion euros last year, although non-resident inbound visitors increased by 7.5 percent, the Bank of Greece said on Wednesday in its report concerning the developments in the balance of travel services for 2016.

According to the final data of BoG, this development was driven mainly by a 14.6 percent decrease in receipts from outside the EU28, which came to 3.6 billion euros or 27.7 percent of total travel receipts, as well as by a drop in receipts from residents of the EU28 that were down 3.3 percent to some 9 million euros.

In particular, 2016 saw receipts from euro area residents fall by 7.1 percent compared with the previous year to 5.5 billion eurtos, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries rose by 3.6 percent to 3.5 billion euros.

Among major countries of origin, receipts from Germany fell by 5.2 percent to 2.1 billion euros and those from France by 25.6 percent to 889 million euros. Receipts from the United Kingdom also decreased by 3.7 percent to 1.9 billion euros.

Turning to non-EU28 countries, receipts from Russia rose by 3.5 percent to 436 million euros, while those from the United States fell by 22.8 percent to 728 million euros.

Meanwhile, the number of inbound visitors in 2016 rose by 7.5 percent to 28 million, from 26 million in 2015. Specifically, visitor flows through airports increased by 9 percent, while those through road border-crossing points declined by 4.7 percent. Visitors from within the EU28 accounted for 61.3 percent of the total number of visitors and visitors from outside the EU28 for 27 percent.

In 2016, visitors from the EU28 rose by 15 percent compared with a year earlier. According to BoG, this development is attributed to increases both in visitors from non-euro area EU28 countries (up 22.1 percent to 8.2 million) and in visitors from the euro area that were up 9.1 percent to 8.9 million. On the other hand, visitors from non-EU28 countries dropped by 12.1 percent to 7.5 million.