Greece’s 11-month Tourism Revenues Break Record in 2023

Tourism revenues generated from January to November 2023 by approximately 31.97 million travelers to Greece broke pre-pandemic 2019 records marking a 15.4 percent increase over the same period in 2022 with the German market driving activity, found data released this week by the Bank of Greece.

More specifically, in the 11-month period to November, travel receipts came to a total of 20.1 billion euros, up by 15.4 percent compared to the same period in 2022.

Central Bank analysts attribute the positive performance to stronger receipts by EU residents, up by 11.0 percent to 10,997.2 million euros and by non-EU nationals up by 18.4 percent to 8,419.4 million euros.

A closer look at source markets for the January-November period reveals that receipts from Germany rose by 8.7 percent to 3,510.9 million euros; from France by 11.6 percent to 1,413.0 million euros; from the UK by 6.0 percent to 3,286.7 million euros; and from the US by 15.1 percent to 1,344.2 million euros. Spending by Russian travelers dropped by 22.8 percent to 31.4 million euros.

In November, travel receipts increased by 18.9 percent year-on-year generated by a 26.4 percent rise to 178.2 million euros by EU residents and a 13.6 percent increase by non-EU nationals. Overall in November, the number of inbound arrivals increased by 27.5 percent over 2022 to 1,036.1 thousand.

Source markets driving travel receipts upward in November were Germany with spending up by 74.8 percent to 44.8 million euros and the US by 62.4 percent to 65.1 million euros.

In the same month, receipts from France dropped by 14.1 percent to 10.1 million euros; from the UK by 34.4 percent to 19.3 million euros; and from Russia by 94.8 percent.