Five Regions Collect Most 2016 Travel Receipts in Greece

Five out of 13 regions in Greece accounted for the better part (87.5 percent) of the 12,749 million euros in travel revenue for 2016, according to data released by the Bank of Greece, which announced that it will from now issue regional breakdown of inbound travel receipts, visits and overnight stays on a quarterly basis.

According to the figures, the South Aegean (3,136 million euros), Crete (3,095 million euros), Attica (1,734 million euros), Central Macedonia (1,688 million euros) and the Ionian Islands (1,504 million euros) led the way with the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Epirus, Western Greece, the North Aegean, Central Greece and Western Macedonia accounting for the remaining 1,592 million euros.

Visits for 2016, across the 13 regions came to 28,376 thousand with the six most popular destinations – Central Macedonia (6,395 thousand visits), the South Aegean (5,227 thousand), Attica (4,543 thousand), Crete (4,537 thousand), the Ionian Islands (2,457 thousand) and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (1,363 thousand) – accounting for 86.4 percent of total visits. The Peloponnese, Epirus, Thessaly, Western Greece, Central Greece, Western Macedonia and the North Aegean accounted for 3,854 thousand visits.

Kefalonia, Ionian Islands. © Maria Theofanopoulou

Overnight stays in 2016, meanwhile, totalled 190,402 thousand with five regions accounting for 85.1 percent of total overnight stays, namely the South Aegean (39,996 thousand nights), Crete (39,378 thousand), Central Macedonia (36,330 thousand), Attica (24,769 thousand) and the Ionian Islands (21,493 thousand). The average length of stay was 6.7 nights.

At the same time, average spending in 2016 per visit across the report’s 13 regions came to 449 euros but varied widely with the highest average recorded on Crete at 682 euros.

Attica accounted for 50.2 percent of total travel receipts by visitors from the US, UK, Cyprus, Germany, France and Italy.

The top five countries accounted for 50.3 percent of total travel receipts, namely Germany (2,128 million euros or 16.7 percent of total receipts), the UK (1,944 million euros or 15.2 percent), France (889 million euros or 7.0 percent), the US (728 million euros or 5.7 percent) and Italy (722 million euros or 5.7 percent).