Tourism in Greece appears to be in full recovery mode, according to recently released data by the Bank of Greece. In the first month of the year, the travel balance – the difference between expenditure associated with incoming and outbound tourism – recorded a surplus of 60.8 million euros compared to a meagre 1.7 million euros for the corresponding period last year.

 A significant increase in travel receipts was also recorded for January 2022, a 309.8% jump on last year’s figures, amounting to 140.1 million euros (compared to 34.2 million in January 2021). While hugely positive, it should be noted that these figures are still far lower than those recorded in pre-pandemic years.

Nevertheless, in the first month of 2022, over 340,000 travelers arrived in Greece, a sizeable portion coming from Germany (52,400).

Far and away the most impressive increase came from the USA (10,800), a massive increase of 1,379% compared to the same period last year. As a result, travel receipts from American visitors to Greece surged by 3,768.9%, amounting to 7 million euros.

As the data refers to the period before the start of the war in Ukraine, Russian tourism to Greece also increased in January. More than 2,000 travelers arrived from Russia, a rise of 579.3% compared to last year, bringing in travel receipts amounting to 0.9 million euros (an increase of 1,085.7%).

Overall, receipts from travelers from the EU-27 countries increased by 270.6%, amounting to 80.1 million euros, while receipts from travelers coming from outside the EU increased by 373.5% ( January 2022: 59.4 million euros, January 2021: 12.6 million euros).

In terms of visitor numbers, a total of 341,400 travelers arrived in January, an increase of 256.7% compared to last year.

Passenger numbers arriving through airports increased by 352.3% compared to January 2021, and through road border stations by 182.9%. The number of visitors from the EU-27 countries increased by 219.6% and from outside the EU by 324.4%, including 33,400 travelers from the United Kingdom.

With information in Greek from moneyreview.gr.