The Bank of Greece’s definitive data for tourism revenues in the first nine months of 2017 all but confirm that last year’s final figures will show it was a record-breaker, given also the very positive impression of the last quarter.
Travel receipts during the January-September 2017 period reached an all-time high of 13.02 billion euros, up 1.24 billion or 10.5% relative to the same period of 2016. This development was driven by a 7.9% increase in receipts from residents of the EU28, and by a 19.5% rise in receipts from residents outside the EU28 to 3,832 million euros.
In particular, receipts from euro area residents grew by 11.4% year-on-year to 5,582 million euros, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries also rose, by 2.4% to 3,254 million euros.
Spending per night and the average length of stay grew 0.8 percent and 1.5 percent respectively, while expenditure per trip increased by 2.3 percent.
Incoming traffic by air grew 9.9 percent year-on-year while that by land was up 10.7 percent.
Cruise revenues
Only cruise revenues dropped 8 percent with passenger numbers falling 10 percent.
The period under review recorded 2,685 cruise ship arrivals (compared to 3,400 for the same time in 2016) and 3,761 thousand cruise passenger visits (4,181 thousand, Jan.-Sept. 2016). According to the Bank of Greece’s annual cruise-specific survey, 90.3% of all cruise passengers were transit visitors, with an average of 1.5 stopovers at Greek ports of call, unchanged from January-September 2016.
Tourists visiting Greece in January-September 2017 totalled 26 million (25,914,000), showing an 8% rise over the same period in 2016.
More specifically, visitors from Germany rose by 15.0% to 2,915 thousand, as did visitors from France, by 8.8% to 1,290 thousand. Visitors from the United Kingdom also increased, by 6.9% to 2,625 thousand. In terms of non-EU28 countries, the number of visitors from Russia rose by 1.1% to 531 thousand, as did the number of visitors from the United States, by 11.6% to 715 thousand.
According to the Border Survey, travel receipts in the Jan.-Sept. 2017 period amounted to 12,667 million euros. Five regions accounted for the bulk (88.9%) of total receipts: the Southern Aegean (3,287 million euros), Crete (2,922 million), the Ionian Islands (1,706 million), Central Macedonia (1,677 million) and Attica (1,666 million). The remaining regions – Thessaly, the Peloponnese, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Epirus, the Northern Aegean, Western Greece, Central Greece and Western Macedonia – together accounted for 1,409 million euros.
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
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Bryan Ledgard License: CC-BY-SA
