BoG: 2023 Tourism Receipts Break 2019 Record

In 2023, travel receipts reached 20.5 billion euros, according to data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG), confirming the Greek tourism sector had reached new heights in the previous year, breaking the record of 2019.

As the BoG figures show, travel receipts amounted to 20.459 billion euros, a 12.7% uptick from 18.151 billion euros in 2019. An additional encouraging sign was that revenues outside the high season were also positive.

Notably, tourist receipts in December last year amounted to 344.2 million euros, compared to 288.9 million euros in 2019, an increase of 19.1%. It is worth noting that tourist receipts totaled 17.6 billion euros.

According to the Bank of Greece, compared to December 2022, arrivals of non-resident travelers increased by 32.0% in December, and the corresponding receipts by 41.5%. For the 12 months from January to December, arrivals of non-resident travelers were up by 17.6%, and the corresponding receipts by 15.7%.

Regarding the current account deficit, a significant decrease was recorded in December, but also for the entire of 2023, a drop explained mainly due to the improvement in the balance of goods, services, and secondary incomes, which was partially offset by the deterioration in the primary income balance.

Specifically, in December 2023, the current account deficit decreased by 459.8 million euros compared to December 2022 and amounted to 2.2 billion euros.

Meanwhile, there was a contraction in the balance of goods deficit, as the drop in imports exceeded that of exports in absolute terms. In current prices, exports decreased by 19.6% (-17.9% in constant prices) and imports by 14.9% (-9.5% in constant prices). Specifically, in current prices, exports of goods excluding fuels decreased by 18.9% (-20.3% in constant prices), while imports of goods excluding fuels decreased by 10.2% (-9.7% in constant prices).

Source: tovima.com