The number of international tourists interested in visiting the Hellenic Republic almost doubled between January and October, with German tourists accounting for the biggest spenders in Greece during the same period, the figures from the Bank of Greece (BoG) have shown.
In addition, BoG data also shows that the average expenditure per trip also marked a notable increase by 23.7 per cent, according to Greece Travel Pages, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Previously the data provided by the Greek Policy Aviation (CAA) revealed that the passenger traffic in Greece rose by 344.2 per cent, in addition to overseas arrivals, which increased by 524.7 per cent in November 2021, compared to the figures of the same period in 2020.
BoG figures also have shown an increase in travel receipts in the first ten months of this year that led to an extra 9.3 billion euros in the balance of travel services, an increase of nearly 3.5 billion euros compared to the same period of 2020.
Earlier this month, authorities in Greece launched winter tourism, following a successful year in the travel and tourism industry, as the revenues generated in this sector through the economic sector more than over €10 billion, nearly four more than expected.
In the first ten months of this year, travel receipts increased by 5.0 billion euros or 142 per cent to 10.1 million euros. At the same time, travel payments rose by 173 million euros or 23.9 per cent to 896 million euros.
Based on the same source, the rise in travel receipts was a result of a 93.8 per cent increase in inbound passenger flows to nearly 13,763 thousand and an increase of 23.7 per cent average expenditure per trip.
Tourists from Germany accounted for the biggest spenders in Greece for a period from January to October 2021, spending nearly 2.2 billion euros, marking a 103.6 per cent increase year-on-year. The number of German tourists to Greece in the first ten months of this year rose by 92.9 per cent to 2,883 thousand.
Besides German tourists, travellers from the Kingdom accounted for the second-biggest spenders with receipts up by 91 per cent to some 1.4 billion euros, followed by travellers from France with receipts up by 173.8 per cent to a total of 997 million euros.
The number of tourists from the United Kingdom increased by 44.5 per cent to 1,485 thousand and from France rose by 146.8 per cent to 1.141 thousand.
The Bank of Greece (BoG) figures also reveal that Greece experienced a notable increase in travel receipts from the United States, with revenue from the US tourists up by 632.1 per cent to 588 million euros.
At the same time, receipts from Russia also rose by 624 per cent to 96 million euros.
The same source shows that the number of tourists from the US to Greece rose by 265.9 per cent to 365 thousand and from Russia by 286.4 per cent to 94 thousand.
The Coronavirus outbreak caused profound damages for the tourism sector, with European Union Member States experiencing a 77 per cent decline compared to pre-pandemic levels, based on European Travel Council (ETC) data. However, Greece registered the highest number of overnight stays, only 19 per cent below compared in 2019 figures.
