British and French spent less in August

The big decline in UK arrivals in August and the even bigger drop in spending by those Britons who did come to Greece, combined with the drop in French spending in the same month despite an increase in their numbers, accounts for the shrinking of travel receipts at the heart of summer. Therefore, a 1.8% decrease in travel receipts was recorded in August, which amounted to 4.249 billion euros, compared to €4.328 billion in the same month in 2023.

However, travel receipts remained in positive territory for the January-August period as they increased by 3.2% from the same time last year.

Inbound travel traffic increased by 6.6% in August and by 9.9% in the January-August period, according to the data released by the Bank of Greece on Tuesday.

The rise in travel receipts in the eight months was driven by a rise in inbound travel as average spending per trip fell 7% to €584.3 from last year’s €628.4 and from €651.5 in 2022.

Nevertheless, the British and the French are almost exclusively responsible for the decrease in tourism receipts in August: Receipts from Great Britain and France decreased in August this year by €110.3 million and €35.3 million respectively, per the BoG. 

The slowdown of the British economy and the hosting of the Olympic Games in Paris, from the end of July and through the first 10 days of August, are cited as possible causes, on the one hand, for the decrease in visits from the United Kingdom and, on the other hand, for the estimated shorter stays of French travelers to Greece in the same month.

Most of the other major markets from which Greece attracts visitors all saw increases in both arrivals and spending in August. 

However, arrivals have grown at a much higher rate than spending by tourists as the duration of their trips to this country has decreased, travel industry insiders say. For example, arrivals from Germany increased by 31% but receipts only by 13%.

That is also the main reason for the shrinking of the average per capita expenditure per trip to Greece that had already been observed last year.