The number of inbound visitors fell by 4.6 pct to 1,710 thousand in January-March 2016, from 1,793 thousand a year earlier, the Bank of Greece said on Thursday. The central bank, in a report, said that arrivals from the EU28 accounted for 54.1 pct of this total, and arrivals from outside the EU28 for 40.7 pct. In January-March 2016, arrivals from the EU28 declined by 9.3 pct year-on-year. This development is attributed to a drop in arrivals from non-euro area EU28 countries (down 15.7 pct to 558 thousand), as arrivals from the euro area rose by 2.5 pct to 368 thousand. Arrivals from non-EU28 countries fell, by 1.8 pct to 695 thousand.
In particular, arrivals from Germany increased by 5.5% to 118 thousand and those from France by 11.8% to 40 thousand. Arrivals from the United Kingdom also increased, by 6.3% to 107 thousand. Finally, turning to non-EU28 countries, arrivals from Russia rose by 134.9% to 20 thousand and those from the United States increased by 28.9% to 62 thousand.
In January-March 2016, overnight stays in Greece totalled 9,786 thousand, up 5.7 pct from 9,263 thousand in January-March 2015. This reflected an increase of 23.4 pct in stays by residents of non-EU28 countries, as stays by residents of the EU28 fell by 2.5 pct.
Detailed cruise data
Since 2012, the Bank of Greece conducts a cruise-specific survey in order to enrich the data collected through its Border Survey. In line with standard practice, detailed cruise data were collected for January-March 2016 from 16 Greek ports, covering 82.7 pct of all cruise ship arrivals.
Ιn the period under review, 150 cruise ship arrivals (January-March 2015: 119) and 189 thousand cruise passenger visits (January-March 2015: 124 thousand) were recorded. This survey revealed that 96.0 pct of all cruise passengers were transit visitors, with an average of 2 stopovers at Greek ports of call, virtually unchanged from a year earlier. In January-March 2016, total receipts from cruise passengers rose by 38.8 pct year-on-year to 14.4 million euros.
The surplus of the balance of travel services was 76 million euros in January-March 2016, down 3.8 pct from a surplus of 80 million in January-March 2015. This development is attributed to a smaller increase in travel receipts. The rise in travel receipts in January-March 2016 was mainly driven by an increase of 28 euros or 9.6 pct in average expenditure per trip (January-March 2016: 315, January-March 2015: 288), as non-resident arrivals declined by 4.6 pct.
In January-March 2016, travel receipts totalled 539 million euros, rising by 4.5 pct year-on-year.
Read more here.
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
