Tourism revenue is up, but spending per capita declines
Revenue from tourism has increased, but spending per visitor is declining, Bank of Greece data show.
Weak European economies, plus Greek inflation, led European visitors, especially, to restrict their spending. In the first half of the year, revenue from travelers rose 12.2% to €6.921 billion.
The Bank of Greece notes that the “travel revenue increase is due to the rise of incoming tourist traffic by 15.5%, since average spending… declined 3.1%.”
The number of visitors during the first half reached 11.625 million, compared to 10.061 million during the same period in 2023.
The top markets all produced more visitors: Germany led with 1.766 million visitors (+13.6%), followed by the UK (1.371 million, up 6%), France (676,100, up 5.6%), Italy (588,600, up 39.1%) and the United States (578,400, up 9.5%).
Revenue from visitors from eurozone countries increased 11.8%, to €3.104 billion, but that from the seven non-eurozone EU members gained 30.1%, to €711.4 million.
When one factors in spending by Greek travelers abroad (€1.368 billion, 22.9% up on 2023), the net profit from travel was €5.553 billion, up from €5.053 billion in 2023.
Overall, tourism revenue accounted for 76.8% of the net total from services and helped partially offset losses from trade.
