Greece Jan-March Travel Receipts Down by 9.2%

Travel receipts came to 489 million euros in January-March 2017, down by 9.2 percent compared to the same period in 2016, the Bank of Greece said this week citing a 5.2 percent or 16-euro decline in average spending per trip and a drop in inbound traffic by 4.2 percent.

Five regions accounted for the bulk – 85.3 percent – of total receipts: Attica at 253 million euros, Central Macedonia at 98 million euros, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace at 22 million euros, the Southern Aegean at 20 million euros and the Peloponnese at 18 million euros.

Daily expenditure dropped by 1.9 percent, while the average duration of stay also fell by 3.4 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2016. The number of overnight stays also decreased by 7.4 percent to 9.057 million.

Inbound traffic meanwhile, between January and March this year decreased by 4.2 percent to 1,637 million against 1,710 million in same period in 2016. Airport traffic grew by 11.7 percent, while road traffic declined by 15.9 percent.

The five most popular destinations, accounting for 85.5 percent of all visits were Attica, Central Macedonia, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Epirus and the Southern Aegean.

Photo Source: Municipality of Piraeus

The balance of travel services marked a surplus of 86 million euros in the same period, up by 13.0 percent compared to a surplus of 76 million euros last year.

With regard to cruise travel, according to Bank of Greece data collected from 16 ports between January and March, covering 85.9 percent of all cruise ship arrivals, 92 cruise ships arrived thus far against 150 in the same period last year with 82,000 passengers against 189,000 in 2016. Total cruise passenger receipts in that period dropped by 36.0 percent compared to the corresponding period in 2016, to 9 million euros.