Greece’s Travel Receipts in Jan-Oct 2019 Exceed Total 2018 Revenues

Travel receipts in Greece during the first ten months of 2019 exceeded the total amount of the country’s tourism revenue in 2018, according to INSETE, the research department of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).

Citing data of the Bank of Greece, INSETE’s monthly bulletin on Monday showed that travel receipts in Greece during the January-October 2019 period totaled 17.53 billion euros, up by 2.03 billion euros compared to the same period last year, leading to an annual increase of 13.1 percent.

In 2018, Greece’s tourism revenue totaled 16.1 billion euros.

According to the Bank of Greece, the nationalities of visitors to Greece that increased their spending during the January-October 2019 period were the French (up by 16.2 percent), the British (up by 36.7 percent), the Americans (up by 10.3 percent) and the Russians (up by 27.5 percent).

The spending of German visitors in Greece during the first ten months of the year dropped by 4.2 percent.

October 2019

Travel receipts in October 2019 rose by 4.1 percent to 1.44 billion euros, from 1.38 billion in October 2018.

Bank of Greece data showed that the rise in travel receipts was attributed to a 2.3 percent year-on-year increase in average expenditure per trip, as well as to a rise of 1.9 percent in inbound traveler flows.

Moreover, the data showed that in October, the tourists that increased their spending included the Germans (up by 7 percent), the British (up by 6.9 percent) and the Russians (up by 156.8 percent). In October, spending by French and American visitors dropped by 9.6 percent and 22.1 percent, respectively.