French, German Travelers Stimulate Greece’s August Tourism Earnings

The Acropolis © GTP

Inbound tourist flows up by 14.3 percent and increased spending by 2.2 percent boosted August tourism revenue by 16.4 percent to 3.522 million euros compared to 3,025 million euros in the same month in 2016.

According to central bank data released on Tuesday, French and German travelers contributed largely to the positive performance in August. Indicatively, receipts from France rose by 65.2 percent to 350 million euros and from Germany by 76.9 percent to 595 million euros. Spending by UK nationals rose by 36.8 percent to 467 million euros, from Russia by 2.9 percent to 101 million euros while US tourists spent less down by 17.6 percent to 119 million euros.

Inbound traveler flows meanwhile rose by 14.3 percent year-on-year to 5,813,000 with airports recording a 7.2 percent rise and road border-crossing points up by 30.6 percent, the Bank of Greece data showed.

For the month of August, French travelers took the lead up by 10.6 percent to 385,000, followed by Germans stronger by 7.9 percent to 738,000, from the UK up by 3.0 percent to 567,000, from Russia by 25.3 percent to 143,000, and from the US up by 21.4 percent to 131,000.

For the January-August period, travel receipts grew by 9.1 percent against the same period in 2016, to 10,524 million euros with the French leading the way up by 19.0 percent at 785 million euros, followed by the Germans up by 29.0 percent at 1,638 million euros.