The number of tourist arrivals in Greece may have marked a record this summer but the situation regarding the proceeds in July and in the first months of 2014 as a whole is not the same.
As ridiculous it may sound, in fact this is due to the reduction in the average spend of those tourists who preferred Greece during their summer holidays. The data published by the Bank of Greece speak for themselves.
According to them, the average spend per person decreased by 5.6% in the first seven months of 2014. Market experts, however, believe that the average spend per overnight stay reported an increase.
In July, tourism revenues amounted to 2.744 billion euro, registering a 14.4% increase compared to July 2013, and totalled 6,684 billion euro (+ 13.8%) in the entire period, namely January-July 2014.
The number of tourist arrivals increased in July by 20.8% to 10,486 million but on the other hand, the average cost of travel reported a decrease. According to the Bank of Greece, in July the average spend for travel was 634.1 euro compared to 716.3 euro in the same month last year (-11.5%) whereas the total amount in the period January-July was 616.8 euro compared to 653.4 euro in 2013 (-5.6%).
Sources from the Union of Greek Tourism Enterprises however indicate that, according to their data, the average spend per overnight stay reported an increase. In particular, they calculated that the average cost per overnight stay in the first seven months of 2014 amounted to 74 euro compared to 72 euro in 2013.
Trips to Athens
The difference with the data published by the Bank of Greece is due to the fact that this year reported significant growth in the trips to Athens, where the number of overnight stays was lower compared to the number of overnight stays in tourist resorts (4-5 days compared to 10 days in the resorts).
Generous Americans
As for the countries of arriving tourists in the first seven months of the year, Germany ranked first in proceeds to the amount of 855 million euro (but with a decline of about 6.3%). The proceeds from the United Kingdom reported an increase too as the tourists who arrived from the island spent 791.5 million euro in Greece (+ 26.1%). On the other hand, the tourists from the United States were the most generous as the average spend of an American tourist amounted to 1,140.2 euro, followed by Russians with 935.8 euro and Germans with 818 euro per person.
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