Greece Sees Growing Tourism Numbers from France and the UK

Photo © GTP

French and British travelers boosted Greek tourism arrivals and revenue during the first eight months of the year, according to the Bank of Greece.

Provisional data released on Tuesday for the January-August period showed that inbound tourism flows to Greece were up by 3.6 percent (totaling 21,842 thousand) and travel receipts rose by 13.6 percent to 13,242 million, compared to the same period in 2018.

According to the Bank of Greece, the rise in travel receipts during the first eight months of the year is attributed to a 9.8 percent increase in the average expenditure per trip.

Photo source: VisitGreece/YSkoulas

The data showed that French and UK travelers contributed largely to the positive performance during the January-August period: visitors from France increased by 3.7 percent to 1,151 thousand and arrivals from the United Kingdom also rose by 19.3 percent to 2,486 thousand. Travel receipts from France rose by 13.5 percent to 825 million euros and from the United Kingdom also increased by 33.6 percent to 1,949 million euros.

On the other hand, the number of visitors from Germany – Greece’s main inbound travel market – decreased by 8.5 percent to 2,659 thousand, during the first eight months of the year. Receipts from Germany fell by 4.8 percent to 1,961 million euros.

Photo © GTP

Turning to non-EU28 countries, during the January-August period, the number of visitors from the United States increased by 11.1 percent to 787 thousand, while visitors from Russia rose by 3.8 percent to 388 thousand. Receipts from the United States increased by 13.3 percent to 763 million euros and receipts from Russia increased by 20.4 percent to 313 million euros.

August

In August alone, travel receipts in Greece rose by 16.1 percent to 4,183 million euros, from 3,601 million euros in August 2018. The rise in travel receipts in August was attributed to a 4.8 percent year-on-year increase in average expenditure per trip, as well as to a rise of 11 percent in inbound traveller flows to Greece.