Average visitor spending, trip duration down
The significant increase in arrivals from certain non-eurozone countries which share a border with Greece, who typically stay for a shorter period and spend less money than the average holidaymaker, explains why the number of visitors and total revenues from tourism grew in the first half of the year but average spending dropped and the average length of stay grew shorter.
Bank of Greece figures showed on Wednesday that in the January-June 2015 period the number of tourism arrivals increased 18.8 percent on a yearly basis, revenues from tourism expanded 9.5 percent, the number of nights tourists spent in the country advanced 6.7 percent and average expenditure per night spent rose 2.6 percent.
However, total expenditure per trip declined by 7.9 percent and the average duration of the stay of each visitor in Greece shrank by 10.2 percent, the BoG data revealed.
