Developments in the balance of travel services: 2021
14/04/2022 - Press Releases
-The balance of travel services posted a surplus of €9,390.2 million in 2021.
-Travel receipts rose by 143.2%.
-Inbound traveller flows increased by 105.9%.
-Overnight stays posted an increase of 108.4%.
-Total receipts from cruise passengers rose by 1,930.4%.
-The Southern Aegean region accounted for the largest share of total receipts, visits and overnight stays in 2021.
Balance of travel services
Based on final data, the balance of travel services in 2021 posted a surplus of €9,390.2 million, up by 166.3% from a surplus of €3,525.9 million in 2020. This development was due to a stronger increase in travel receipts (up by €6,183.9 million or 143.2%) than in travel payments (up by €319.7 million or 40.3% - Chart 1). The rise in travel receipts in 2021 compared with 2020 was driven by a 105.9% increase in the number of non-resident inbound travellers, as well as by a rise in average expenditure per overnight stay by €11.2 or 16.7% (2021: €78.5, 2020: €67.3 - Table 1).
In greater detail, average expenditure per trip rose by 18.1% (2021: €688.9, 2020: €583.2), while the average length of stay stood at 8.8 nights, virtually unchanged from 2020. Total overnight stays (Table 5) increased by 108.4% to 133,734.9 thousand in 2021, from 64,172.5 thousand in 2020.
Travel receipts
Travel receipts in 2021 totalled €10,502.7 million, up by 143.2% compared with 2020. This development was driven by a 137.8% increase in receipts from residents of the EU27, which came to €6,797.7 million and accounted for 64.7% of total travel receipts, and by a 143.2% rise in receipts from residents outside the EU27 to €3,530.8 million (Table 2 and Chart 2).
In more detail, receipts from euro area residents increased by 130.2% year-on-year to €5,536.2 million, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU27 countries increased by 178.7% to €1,261.5 million.
Among major countries of origin, receipts from Germany rose by 104.1% to €2,315.9 million and receipts from France rose by 169.9% to €991.7 million. Turning to non-EU27 countries, receipts from the United Kingdom rose by 93.9% to €1,465.9 million, while receipts from the United States increased by 592.7% to €596.2 million. Receipts from Russia also increased, by 700.5% to €114.5 million.
Travel receipts by trip purpose
Looking at the breakdown of non-residents’ expenditure in Greece by trip purpose, trips for personal reasons represented the bulk of total travel receipts in 2021, with a share of 95.7%, up from 92.7% in 2020, while the corresponding receipts increased by 151.1%. Within this category, leisure accounted for the largest share of total receipts (2021: 87.6%, 2020: 80.2%), with the corresponding receipts increasing by 165.8% year-on-year to €9,201.5 million. Trips for the purpose of visiting family, with a share of 5.8% in total receipts, although reduced from last year’s 9.1%, showed a rise of 55.2% in corresponding receipts. Receipts from trips for health purposes also rose, by 31.2% to €22.6 million. Finally, receipts from business trips increased by 42.6%, but their share in total receipts declined (2021: 4.3%, 2020: 7.3% - Table 3 and Chart 3).
Inbound traveller flows
As already mentioned, the number of inbound travellers in 2021 rose by 105.9% to 15,246.1 thousand, from 7,405.8 thousand in 2020. Specifically, traveller flows through airports increased by 109.5% and traveller flows through road border-crossing points rose by 69.6%. Travellers from within the EU27 accounted for 66.4% of the total number of travellers, while travellers from outside the EU27 accounted for 30.1%[1]. In 2021, travellers from within the EU27 increased by 107.0% compared with 2020. This development is attributed to an increase in the number of travellers from euro area countries by 113.5% to 7,359.7 thousand, as well as to a rise in the number of travellers from non-euro area EU27 countries by 91.6% to 2,763.3 thousand. Travellers from non-EU27 countries rose by 84.4% to 4,581.9 thousand.
In particular, travellers from Germany increased by 96.6% to 3,001.2 thousand and travellers from France rose by 150.5% to 1,174.5 thousand. Finally, turning to non-EU27 countries, the number of travellers from the United Kingdom increased by 48.9% to 1,591.2 thousand, while travellers from the United States increased by 271.6% to 396.0 thousand and from Russia by 365.3% to 119.5 thousand (Table 4 and Chart 4).
Overnight stays[2]
In 2021, the number of overnight stays in Greece totalled 133,734.9 thousand, up by 108.4% from 64,172.5 thousand in 2020. This was driven by a 105.7% increase in nights spent by residents of the EU27, as well as by a 103.7% rise in nights spent by residents of non-EU27 countries. The rise in overnight stays by residents of the EU27 is attributed to increases by 97.7% in nights spent by euro area residents and by 144.6% in nights spent by residents of non-euro area EU27 countries. The number of overnight stays rose by 77.1% for German residents and by 146.3% for French residents. Turning to non-EU27 countries, the number of overnight stays increased by 54.4% for UK residents, by 303.0% for US residents and by 463.5% for residents of Russia (Table 5 and Chart 5).
Cruises
Since 2012, the Bank of Greece conducts a cruise-specific survey (“Cruise Survey”) in order to enrich the data collected through its Border Survey. Following a standardised methodology[3], detailed cruise data for 2021 were collected at 16 Greek ports, covering 84.0% of all cruise ship arrivals in Greece.
The year under review saw 2,074 cruise ship arrivals (2020: 159) and 1,538.8 thousand cruise passenger visits (2020: 68.2 thousand - Table 7). According to the Cruise Survey, 83.7% of all cruise passengers were transit visitors, with an average of 2.6 stopovers at Greek ports of call, up from 2.0 stopovers in 2020.
Total receipts from cruise passengers in 2021 rose by 1,930.4% year-on-year to €200.8 million. Of this amount, €26.6 million were already captured in the Border Survey data, as they represent receipts from travellers leaving the country through Greek last ports, while the remaining €174.3 million concern additional receipts data recorded by the Cruise Survey (Table 6).
Chart 7 shows a breakdown of cruise receipts by port. The port of Piraeus ranks first with a share of 38.9% in total cruise receipts, followed by the port of Corfu with 18.8% and the port of Heraklion with 13.9%, respectively. The seven most important cruise ship ports account for 91.7% of total cruise receipts and 86.2% of total cruise passenger visits (Chart 8).
Total overnight stays ashore rose by 1,894.1% year-on-year to 2,887.9 thousand in 2021, with a positive impact on cruise receipts. The total number of cruise passengers also rose year-on-year, by 1,633.5% to an estimated 585.8 thousand.
Balance of travel services by region[4]
As suggested by the Border Survey, travel receipts in 2021 amounted to €10,328.4 million. Five regions accounted for the bulk (90.0%) of total receipts (Table 8), namely: the Southern Aegean (€3,121.3 million), Crete (€2,395.0 million), Attica (€1,466.2 million), the Ionian Islands (€1,297.3 million) and Central Macedonia (€1,012.1 million). The remaining regions (the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Western Greece, Epirus, Central Greece, the Northern Aegean and Western Macedonia) together accounted for €1,036.5 million.
Visits to Greece (all 13 regions combined) in 2021 totalled 16,375.9 thousand. The number of visits exceeds the number of inbound travellers (14,704.9 thousand travellers), as travellers may visit more than one region in the course of one trip.
The five most visited regions, accounting for 86.0% of total visits, were: the Southern Aegean (3,623.9 thousand visits), Crete (3,148.4 thousand), Central Macedonia (2,933.7 thousand), Attica (2,639.8 thousand) and the Ionian Islands (1,742.2 thousand). The remaining regions (the Peloponnese, Epirus, Western Greece, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Thessaly, Central Greece, the Northern Aegean and Western Macedonia) together accounted for 2,287.9 thousand visits.
The number of overnight stays in Greece in the period under review totalled 131,357.5 thousand. According to the breakdown into the 13 regions, five regions accounted for 86.7% of total overnight stays, namely: the Southern Aegean (29,913.7 thousand nights), Crete (26,872.0 thousand), Attica (21,431.5 thousand), Central Macedonia (21,296.1 thousand) and the Ionian Islands (14,390.5 thousand). The remaining regions (the Peloponnese, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Thessaly, Western Greece, Epirus, Central Greece, the Northern Aegean and Western Macedonia) together accounted for 17,453.6 thousand overnight stays.
Related link:
Detailed and final data on the balance of travel services are published in the Travel services section of the Bank of Greece website.
[1] The remaining 3.5% corresponds to data on cruise passenger flows other than those collected through the Border Survey (“non-BS cruise data”).
[2] It should be noted that each same-day visit, irrespective of duration, is counted as one overnight stay.
[3] Overall cruise data are thus derived from two sources:
(a) The Border Survey, which records data on cruise travellers leaving the country through a Greek point of exit (airport, road border-crossing point or sea port). In this case, the cruise data are integrated into the overall Border Survey statistics.
(b) The Cruise Survey, launched by the Bank of Greece in 2012. The survey is based on administrative data and seeks to capture the rest of cruise travellers, grouping them into: (i) travellers with a Greek homeport; (ii) travellers with a Greek last port; and (iii) transit travellers stopping over at Greek ports of call.
[4] The regional figures do not include cruise data collected from sources other than the Border Survey. Therefore, they differ from aggregate data for travel services reported in the previous sections.