By L. Karageorgos
Figures released this week by the Bank of Greece (BoG) show that average spending per tourist on holiday in Greece over the first nine months of 2017 reached 536.3 euros.
The figure is almost exactly half of the amount spent by a tourist on holiday in Spain during the same period, as the latter reached 1,075 euros per person. The same figure for Cyprus was around 733 euros over the Jan-Aug period.
The gap in spending per tourist, between Greece and its two Mediterranean competitors, for instance, continues to trouble Greek tourism professionals and relevant chambers. Two explanations given for the result, in broad terms, are that tourist-related prices have fallen in Greece and that the country attracts holiday-makers with a smaller pocketbook.
On the slightly brighter side, the figure for Greece was up by 0.5 percent, compared to 2016, but still lower than the 602.5 euros figure posted in 2015 – the annus horribilis of the crisis years in Greece.
In total, tourism-related revenue in Greece over the Jan-Sept 2017 period was calculated by the BoG as 10.3 percent higher than the corresponding figure in 2016, standing at 12.994 billion euros.
Arrivals also increased in 2017, up until September, with 23.535 million tourists arriving in the country, up from 21.345 in the same period of 2016.
