Tourist Demand for Greece Sends 8-month Travel Receipts Soaring

The strong tourist demand for Greece in the first eight months of the year boosted travel receipts by 15.3 percent to 14.66 billion euros or up by an additional 1.94 billion euros over the same period in 2022 driven by an 18.4 percent increase in inbound traveler flows to 22.5 million, said the Bank of Greece this week.

At the same time, 2023 figures surpassed those of pre-Covid 2019 with the number of arrivals up from 21.84 million and travel receipts up from 13.22 billion euros.

Central bank analysts attribute the upward trend to a 9.8 percent increase in receipts by EU residents to 8.1 billion euros and 21.3 percent rise in receipts by non-EU travelers to 6.10 billion euros. Average expenditure per trip in the eight months to August dropped by 3.4 percent, the bank said.

Source:BoG.

Travelers from the US helped boost tourism-related revenues with travel receipts up by 24.5 percent to 938.0 million euros. Other source markets supporting eight-month travel receipts included Germany with receipts up by 1.1 percent to 2.346.0 million euros, France (+14.3 percent to 1.136.3 million euros), the UK (+4.9 percent to 2.360.3 million euros), and Russia (+2.9 percent to 26.7 million euros).

August

According to the same data, in the peak summer month of August, travel receipts rose by 5.2 percent to 4.350.7 million euros up from 4.134.8 million euros in August 2022 driven by a 10.4 percent rise in international arrivals. However, average expenditure per trip dropped by 5.1 percent.

August travel receipts were generated EU travelers with spending up by 1.5 percent to 2.539.8 million euros and travelers from outside the EU with receipts up by 10.2 percent. However, according to BoG data, travel receipts from Greece’s main source markets declined in August. Indicatively, receipts from Germany dropped by 12.7 percent to 625.6 million euros, from the UK by 5.9 percent, from the US by 6.6 percent, and from Russia by 54.1 percent. Only travel receipts from the French market rose by 4.6 percent to 379.7 million euros in the month.

“Bank of Greece figures send out a particularly positive message for Greek tourism and the country’s economy. They demonstrate that Greece can be a leading player in a global competitive market despite ongoing crises. Our goal is to continue to offer a competitive tourism product that can evolve in terms of sustainability and respect,” said Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni commenting on the news.