
January ushered in good tidings for Greek tourism.
According to the official data of the Bank of Greece, the travel balance showed a surplus of 60.8 million euros in January 2022, while travel receipts increased by 309.8% in January 2022.
At the same time, incoming travel traffic increased by 256.7% in January 2022, as 341.4 thousand travelers visited our country.
Travel balance
According to the provisional data, the travel balance in January 2022 showed a surplus of 60.8 million euros, compared to a surplus of 1.7 million euros in the corresponding month of 2021. In particular, an increase of 309.8% was recorded in January 2022 travel receipts, which amounted to 140.1 million euros, compared to 34.2 million euros in the corresponding month of 2021, while an increase of 143.8% was also observed in travel payments (January 2022: 79.3 million euros, January 2021: EUR 32.5 million). The increase in travel receipts is due to the increase in incoming travel traffic by 256.7%, as well as the average expenditure per trip by 14.5%. Net receipts from the provision of travel services offset by 2.0% the goods deficit and contributed 15.8% to total net receipts from services.
Travel receipts
In January 2022, as mentioned above, travel receipts increased by 309.8% compared to the corresponding month of 2021. More specifically, receipts from residents of EU-27 countries increased by 270.6%, which were came to 80.1 million euros, while receipts from residents of non-EU-27 countries increased by 373.5% (January 2022: 59.4 million euros, January 2021: 12.6 million euros). The increase in receipts from residents of EU-27 countries was a result of the increase in receipts from residents of euro area countries by 295.1% (January 2022: 62.6 million euros, January 2021: 15.8 million, residents of EU-27 countries outside the euro area by 203.3%, which amounted to 17.5 million euros. In particular, for the most important countries of origin of travelers from the euro area, receipts from Germany increased by 227.7% to 21.4 million euros and those from France also increased by 486.9% to 5, EUR 4 million. From outside the EU-27, receipts from the United Kingdom increased by 524.8% to 16.4 million euros, while receipts from the US increased by 3,768.9% to 7.0 million euros. Receipts from Russia also increased by 1,085.7% and amounted to 0.9 million euros.
Incoming travel traffic
Incoming travel traffic in January 2022 amounted to 341.4 thousand travelers, an increase of 256.7% compared to the corresponding month of 2021. In particular, travel through airports increased by 352.3% compared to January of 2021 and this through road border stations by 182.9%. The increase in incoming travel traffic came both from the increase in travel traffic from EU-27 countries by 219.6% and from non-EU-27 countries by 324.4%. More specifically, travel traffic from the euro area countries amounted to 148.9 thousand travelers, increased by 270.2%. Travel traffic from EU-27 countries outside the euro area also increased by 125.2%, reaching 48.6 thousand travelers. In particular, travel traffic from Germany increased by 183.5% and amounted to 54.2 thousand travelers, while that from France increased by 424.8% to 15.8 thousand travelers. Regarding non-EU-27 countries, travel traffic from the United Kingdom increased by 483.9% to 33.4 thousand travelers and from the USA by 1,379.6% to 10.8 thousand travelers. Finally, travel traffic from Russia also increased by 579.3% and amounted to 2.2 thousand travelers.


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