Greek tourism: Receipts Soar to 17.9 Billion in 9M 2023 – Up 11% over 2019

Greek tourism in 2023 registered a record year and this assessment is also confirmed by the latest data from the Bank of Greece for the first nine months of the year.

According to these, travel receipts reached 17.91 billion euros, significantly higher than in 2022 (15.5 billion euros) but also in 2019, when it was 16.1 billion euros. The increase between 2023 and 2019 reaches 11.3%.

September also moved very well with revenues of 3.2 billion euros compared to 2.88 billion in 2019, marking an increase of 12.8% or 369.9 million in absolute numbers.

In particular, receipts from the travel sector recorded an upward trend for the third consecutive year as from 8.7 billion euros in the first nine months of 2021, followed by the nine months of 2022 with 15.5 billion euros and this year has closed with 17.9 billion . euro.

Travel receipts recorded a similar trend in the month of September, as in 2021 they were at 2.1 billion euros, in 2022 they increased to 2.8 billion euros and in September 2023 they reached 3.2 billion euros.

The current account balance halved

A significant reduction was recorded in the current account deficit in September 2023 compared to the corresponding month of 2022, as shown by the data of the Bank of Greece, as it decreased by 50%, mainly due to the improvement in the balance of goods and to a lesser extent in services and secondary income balances, while the primary income balance worsened.

As for the 9th month of January-September 2023, the current account deficit narrowed compared to the same period in 2022, due to the improvement in the goods, services and secondary income balances, which to some extent was offset by the deterioration in the primary income balance , as reported by the Bank of Greece.

Specifically in September 2023, the current account deficit was reduced by approximately half compared to September 2022 and amounted to 404.3 million euros. The decrease in the goods balance deficit is due to a greater decrease in imports than exports. Exports decreased by 10.3% at current prices (10.1% at constant prices) and imports decreased by 16.3% at current prices (-7.5% at constant prices).

In particular, exports of non-fuel goods decreased by 10.1% at current prices (-12.2% at constant prices), while imports of non-fuel goods decreased by 3.7% at current prices (-3.3% at fixed values).