Inbound travel up 17.3%, receipts up 15.4% in January-November

Inbound traveller flows rose 17.3% in the 11-month period from January to November 2023 to 31,969.7 thousand (January-November 2022: 27,255.4 thousand), while travel receipts rose by 15.4% in the same period to 20.115 billion euros, compared with the same period in 2022, the Bank of Greece said on Monday.

More specifically, traveller flows through airports increased by 12.5%, while traveller flows through road border-crossing points grew by 34.5%. In the period under review, the number of travellers from within the EU27 rose by 15.0% year-on-year to 19,285.5 thousand, while travellers from outside the EU27 increased by 20.9% to 12,684.2 thousand.

The number of travellers from within the euro area rose by 11.0% as also did that from non-euro area EU27 countries, by 23.7%. Specifically, the number of travellers from Germany rose by 8.7% to 4,680.6 thousand and the number of travellers from France increased by 4.0% to 1,809.8 thousand. Turning to non-EU27 countries, travellers from the United Kingdom rose by 2.9% to 4,543.7 thousand as well as those from the United States, by 31.3% to 1,369.9 thousand. Finally, the number of travellers from Russia dropped by 5.9% to 33.2 thousand.

In January-November 2023, the balance of travel services showed a surplus of 17,899.5 million, up from a surplus of 15,684.7 million in the respective period of 2022. Travel receipts rose by 2,682.3 million, or 15.4%, to 20,115.4 million, while travel payments increased by 467.6 million, or 26.7%, to 2,215.9 million. The rise in travel receipts stemmed from a 17.3% increase in inbound traveller flows, as average expenditure per trip fell by 2.7%. Net travel receipts contributed 84.0% to total net receipts from services and offset 60.4% of the goods deficit.

In January-November 2023, travel receipts totalled 20,115.4 million, up by 15.4% relative to the corresponding period of 2022. This development was due to increases in receipts from residents of the EU27 by 11.0% to 10,997.2 million and in receipts from residents outside the EU27 by 18.4% to 8,419.4 million.

In greater detail, receipts from euro area residents rose by 11.9% to 8,927.5 million, as did receipts from residents of non-euro area EU27 countries, by 7.1% to 2,069.7 million. In particular, receipts from Germany grew by 8.7% to 3,510.9 million and receipts from France increased by 11.6% to 1,413.0 million. Turning to non-EU27 countries, receipts from the United Kingdom rose by 6.0% to 3,286.7 million. Receipts from the United States also increased by 15.1% to 1,344.2 million, while receipts from Russia dropped by 22.8% to 31.4 million.