Greece’s tourism industry recovered strongly during the first ten months of 2023, demonstrating a remarkable revival.
The Bank of Greece (BG) reported a significant year-on-year increase of 14.7 per cent in travel receipts, surpassing pre-pandemic records.
Further, central bank data reveals that tourism receipts from January to October surpassed all travel receipts in 2019. This outstanding performance was driven by a 17 per cent increase in traveller flows, reaching 30.9 million.
According to Greek Travel Pages (GTP), cumulative travel revenue for the period from January to October 2023 reached an impressive €19.6 billion, reflecting a significant increase of 14.7 per cent compared to the corresponding period in 2022. This figure significantly exceeded the €18.17 billion recorded in 2019.
Based on these data, European travellers demonstrated a notable increase in spending, reaching €10,902.5 million, representing a significant increase of 17.5 per cent. On the other hand, non-EU citizens contributed €8,153.3 million in travel expenses. Major contributors to the increase in travel revenue over the ten months included Germany, where tourists spent €3,396.6 million, reflecting a commendable increase of 6.0 per cent.
Furthermore, France saw a notable increase of 10.8 per cent, reaching €1,389.0 million, while the United Kingdom and the United States showed increases of 8.3 per cent (€3,326.0 million) and 8.0 per cent (€1,217.7 million), respectively. However, receipts from Russia suffered a drop of 25.0 per cent, settling at €29.9 million.
Analysing the same dataset, October witnessed a commendable 10.2 per cent surge in travel receipts compared to the corresponding month in the previous year. This growth was primarily driven by a substantial 14.0 per cent increase in inbound arrivals.
The data also show during October 2023, expenditure by EU travellers surged to €920.9 million, registering an impressive increase, while non-EU arrivals also contributed to the growth with a 9.1 per cent rise.
Examining the primary markets propelling the increase in receipts, Germany led with a remarkable 18.5 per cent surge, reaching €430.9 million. Following closely were receipts from France, which increased by 13.2 per cent to €98.3 million, and the UK, marking a substantial growth of 25.3 per cent to €311.3 million.
However, receipts from the US, a key long-haul market, experienced a notable decrease of 29.4 per cent, amounting to €102.0 million, and those from Russia also declined significantly by 38.9 per cent, settling at €1.9 million.
Simultaneously, earlier data from the central bank predicted that Greece was on the verge of surpassing 30 million traveller arrivals for the year, setting the stage for a new record in the tourism sector.
