ECONOMY

Dip in Greek tourism arrivals and revenues at start of year

Dip in Greek tourism arrivals and revenues at start of year

Tourism arrivals from abroad and revenues posted a yearly decline over the first two months of the year, according to provisional figures presented on Friday by the Bank of Greece.

Tourism revenues declined 2.7 percent year-on-year to 309.9 million euros in the January-February period, while arrivals fell 2.8 percent to come to 965,000.

Average spending per trip was virtually unchanged, coming to 317.4 euros against 317.1 euros in the same period last year.

The decline in revenues and arrivals highlights the country’s inability to attract more foreign visitors during the winter period. The drop in visitors is mainly due to the fall in visitors by road.

March does not appear to have improved the picture in the industry: Provisional data by the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) showed a 0.8 percent annual decline in air arrivals from abroad at the country’s main airports last month, coming to 360,461 against 363,531 in March 2016. In the January-March period, air arrivals rose 1.7 percent to 898,790 against 883,650 in the first quarter of 2016.

The tourism market, however, expects the rest of the year to show a considerable increase, at least in arrivals.

BoG figures also revealed a 9.9 percent drop in the expenditure of Greek tourists abroad.

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