In a new, positive sign for the Greek economy, travel receipts for September marked an increase of over 15 percentage points over the same month last year.
The fresh data was reported today by the Bank of Greece, the country’s central bank, in a bulletin which provides details on the balance of travel services, travel receipts, and inbound traveler flows.
The new data in the report issued by the Bank of Greece as follows:
Balance of travel services
In September, 2017, the balance of travel services showed a surplus of €2.3 billion, up 17.2% from a surplus of 1,959 million in September 2016.
More specifically, travel receipts rose by 15.5% to €2.5 million in September 2017, from €2,138 million in the same month of 2016, while travel payments decreased by 3.0% (September 2017: €174 million, September 2016: €179 million).
The rise in travel receipts is attributed to an 11.8% increase in inbound traveler flows and to a rise in average expenditure per trip by 3.9% to €518.
Net receipts from travel services accounted for 83.2% of total net receipts from services and more than offset (173.9%) the goods deficit.
From January-September 2017, the balance of travel services showed a surplus of €11,535 million, up 12.4% from a surplus of €10,258 million in the same period of 2016.
This development was driven by an increase of €1,2 billion or 10.3% in travel receipts and a decrease of €64 million or 4.2% in travel payments.
The rise in travel receipts is attributed mostly to a 10.3% increase in inbound traveler flows and, to a lesser extent, to a 0.5% rise in average expenditure per trip. Net receipts from travel services offset 84.3% of the goods deficit and accounted for 76.7% of total net receipts from services.
Travel receipts
As mentioned previously, travel receipts rose by 15.5% year-on-year. In more detail, receipts from residents of the EU28 increased by 12.4% to €1,7 billion, as did receipts from outside the EU28, by 26.9% (September 2017: €691 million, September 2016: €545 million).
The higher receipts from within the EU28 were due to increases by 16.2% in receipts from euro area residents (September 2017: €1 million, September 2016: €888 million) and by 7.1% from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries (September 2017: €683 million, September 2016: €637 million).
Breaking down receipts by visitor’s country of origin, receipts from France rose by 12.4% to €139 million, as did receipts from Germany, by 14.8% to €437 million. Receipts from the United Kingdom also increased, by 9.0% to €378 million.
Turning to non-EU28 countries, receipts from Russia decreased by 51.2% to €45 million, whereas receipts from the United States increased by 38.2% to €164 million.
In January-September 2017, travel receipts increased by 10.3% year-on-year to €12,994 million. This development is attributed to increases in receipts from within the EU28 by 14.0% to €8,8 billion and in receipts from outside the EU28 by 3.9% to €3,8 million. In particular, receipts from euro area residents rose by 19.7% to €5,5 billion, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries also increased, by 5.6% to €3,285 million.
Visitors from the euro area increased by 9.8%, while visitors from the non-euro area EU28 countries also rose, by 6.3%.
Source: Bank of Greece
