Tourism revenues reached 20.6 billion euros in 2023, according to final data from the Bank of Greece, showing an increase of 16.5% compared to 2022.
This development is due to the 11.6% increase in receipts from residents of the EU 27 countries, which amounted to 11.169 billion euros, representing 54.2% of total receipts, as well as the 18.3% increase in receipts from residents of other countries, which amounted to 8.6 billion euros.
The increased revenues reflect the 20.8% increase in inbound tourism traffic as the number of tourists visiting the country in 2023 reached 30.08 million compared to 29.875 million travellers in 2022.
In particular, travel through airports increased by 12.7% and that through road border stations by 34.9%. The EU-27 countries contributed to the modulation of travel, with a 54.4% share, and other countries, with a 36.3% share .
In 2023, travel from the EU-27 countries increased by 15.6% compared to 2022.
This development is due to an 11.3% increase in travel from euro area countries, which amounted to 12.9 million euro area tourists in 2023. travellers, as well as a 24.7% increase from EU-27 countries outside the euro area, which amounted to 6..7 million travellers.
In particular, there was a 9.5% increase in travel from Germany, which amounted to 4.7 million travellers, and a 30.4% increase in travel from Italy, which amounted to 1.842.3 million travellers. There was also an increase of 4.2% in travel from France, with 1.8 million travellers.
Finally, travel from other countries increased by 20.8% to 13 million travellers. In particular, travel from the United Kingdom rose by 2.4% to 4.5 million travellers. Travel from the USA increased by 29.2% to 1.4 million travellers, while travel from Russia decreased by 1.0% to 35.7 million travellers.
Non-resident traveler overnight stays in Greece were 236, 271.2 million in 2023, compared to 220,213 million in 2022, an increase of 7.3%.
This is due to an increase of 1.5% in overnight stays by residents of the EU 27 countries, as well as an increase of 10.8% in overnight stays by residents of other countries.
The increase in nights spent by residents of the EU-27 countries reflects the 2.6% increase in nights spent by residents of the euro area countries, as nights spent by residents of the EU-27 countries outside the euro area decreased by 2.1%.
Overnight stays from Germany showed little change compared to 2022, while those from Italy increased by 33.3% and those from France decreased by 1.5%.
Of the other countries, overnight stays from the UK decreased by 5.2%, while those from the US increased by 23.1%. Finally, overnight stays from Russia also increased by 8.5%.
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In terms of cruise revenues in 2023, total cruise passenger receipts increased by 84.1%, compared to 2022, to €908.4 million. 5,152 cruise ship arrivals were recorded (2022: 4,598 arrivals).
Total non-cruise ship passenger nights increased in 2023 by 121.5% compared to 2022 to 9.4 million nights, positively influencing the cruise revenue configuration. Total cruise passengers are estimated at 3..4 million , an increase of 61.1%.
The main port in terms of cruise receipts is Piraeus, with a share of 47.8% of the total. The port of Corfu and the port of Santorini follow with 13.3% and 8.5% of receipts respectively.
It is noted that according to the final data, in 2023 the travel balance surplus amounted to 18.1 billion euros, compared to a surplus of 15.7 billion euros in 2022, an increase of 15.3%.
This development is due to a higher increase in travel receipts (by EUR 2..9 billion or 16.5%) than that of travel payments (by EUR 507.0 million or 26.3%).
