Greece records half-year tourism surplus of EUR 7.5 billion

The Central Bank of Greece recently reported on the balance of payments in the Greek tourism sector, to July 2019:

Following an all-time high of over 16 billion euros in tourism revenue in 2018, Greek tourism flows and revenue have retained their rise in the first half of 2019. In January-July 2019, the number of inbound visitors increased to 15.080 million, compared to 14.995 million in January-July 2018.

In January-July 2019, the balance of travel services showed a surplus of €7.547 million, up from a surplus of €6.793 million in the same period of 2018. Net receipts from travel services accounted for 85.6% of total net receipts from services and more than offset (169.1%) the goods deficit.

In July 2019, travel receipts from EU residents increased by 15.5% to €2.545 million, while receipts from non-EU residents rose by 2.7% compared with July 2019.

Among major source countries, receipts from Germany fell by 2.9% to €501 million, whereas receipts from France increased by 1.3% to €193 million. Receipts from the United Kingdom rose by 63.6% to €566 million. Receipts from the United States fell by 7.7% to €180 million, while receipts from Russia fell by 8.7% to €88 million.

Visitor flows through airports increased by 2.6%, whereas visitor flows through road border-crossing points declined by 4.5%.

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Source: Bank of Greece, 23/09/2019