Travel receipts up 15.2% to 18 billion euros in Jan-Sept

Travel receipts grew 15.2% totaling 17.919 billion euros in the January-September period this year, compared with the corresponding period in 2022, with the balance of travel services showing a surplus of 16.071.0 billion, up from a surplus of 14.136.5 billion in the same period of 2022, the Bank of Greece (BoG) said on Tuesday.

Travel receipts grew 15.2% totaling 17.919 billion euros in the January-September period this year, compared with the corresponding period in 2022, with the balance of travel services showing a surplus of 16.071.0 billion, up from a surplus of 14.136.5 billion in the same period of 2022, the Bank of Greece (BoG) said on Tuesday.

More specifically, travel receipts rose by 2.359.7 billion, or 15.2%, to 17.919.5 billion, while travel payments increased by 425.2 million, or 29.9%, to 1.848.5 billion. The rise in travel receipts stemmed from a 17.3% increase in inbound traveller flows, as average expenditure per trip fell by 2.5%. Net travel receipts offset 67.5% of the goods deficit and contributed 85.0% to total net receipts from services.

The increase in travel receipts was due to increases in receipts from residents of the EU27 by 11.7% to 9.981.6 billion and in receipts from residents outside the EU27 by 18.3% to 7.458.8 billion. In particular, receipts from Germany grew by 4.4% to 2.965.7 billion, while receipts from France grew by 10.6% to 1.290.7 billion. Turning to non-EU27 countries, receipts from the United Kingdom rose by 6.8% to 3.014.7 billion. Receipts from the United States increased by 13.5% to 1,115.7 billion, while receipts from Russia dropped by 23.8% to 28.0 million.

In the nine-month period, the number of inbound travellers rose by 17.3% to 27,790.5 thousand (January-September 2022: 23,686.7 thousand). Specifically, traveller flows through airports grew by 11.7%, while traveller flows through road border-crossing points increased by 36.7%. In the period under review, the number of travellers from within the EU27 rose by 15.0% year-on-year to 16,946.9 thousand and travellers from outside the EU27 increased by 21.2% to 10,843.6 thousand.

The number of travellers from within the euro area rose by 10.0% and travellers from non-euro area EU27 countries increased by 25.2%. Specifically, the number of travellers from Germany grew by 6.5% to 3,855.5 thousand, as did the number of travellers from France, by 5.3% to 1,626.8 thousand.

Turning to non-EU‑27 countries, the number of travellers from the United Kingdom rose by 0.8% to 3,882.4 thousand and travellers from the United States increased by 32.6% to 1,108.0 thousand. Finally, the number of travellers from Russia fell by 3.8% to 30.1 thousand.