Greece Tourism Revenue Slumps in November 2019

Despite the upward overall trend for Greek tourism in 2019 and an 18.2 percent rise in inbound traveler flows in November, the month proved to be slower in terms of revenue, according to provisional data released by the Bank of Greece.

More specifically, travel receipts in November 2019 declined by 0.8 percent  to 314 million euros against 316 million euros in the same month a year earlier.

Central Bank analysts attribute the drop to a 16.9 percent year-on-year decrease in average spending per trip. Net receipts from travel services accounted for 16.2 percent of total net receipts from services.

The month of November saw travel receipts drop by 0.8 percent year-on-year with receipts from EU residents down by 2.0 percent to 158 million euros and from non-EU nationals by 1.6 percent to 131 million euros compared to 133 million euros in the same month in 2018.

In terms of source market spending, receipts from Germany dropped by 6.6 percent to 32 million euros, from France by 43.3 percent to 9 million euros, from the UK by 18.9 percent to 19 million euros, from the US by 37.8 percent to 22 million euros, and from Russia by 5.9 percent to 8 million euros.

In terms of arrivals, November saw 930 thousand inbound visitors compared with 786 thousand in November 2018, marking a 5.9 percent rise through airports and a 43.5 percent increase through road border-crossing points.

Overall for the 11-month period to November 2019, travel receipts increased by 13.0 percent to 17,863 million euros driven by an 8.7 percent rise in average expenditure per trip and by a 4.0 percent rise in inbound traveler flows.

The number of incoming travelers increased by 4.0 percent to 30,656 thousand against 29,466 thousand in 2018 up by 1.4 percent through airports and by 9.5 percent through road border-crossing points.