Developments in the balance of travel services: January - March 2019
15/07/2019 - Press Releases
Balance of travel services
Based on
final data, the balance of travel services in January-March
2019 posted a surplus of €165 million, up 29.5% from a surplus
of €127 million in January-March 2018. This development was due to the stronger
increase in travel receipts (up €193 million or 34.8%) than in travel payments
(up €155 million or 36.4%). The rise in travel receipts in January-March 2019 compared
with the same period of 2018 was driven by a 7.0% increase in the number of
non-resident inbound visitors, as well as by a rise in average expenditure per
trip by €78 or 26.0% (January-March 2019: €379, January-March 2018: €301).
Specifically,
expenditure per overnight stay rose by 13.9% (January-March 2019: €63,
January-March 2018: €55), while the average length of stay increased by 10.5%
year-on-year to 6.0 nights (January-March 2018: 5.4 nights). Total overnight
stays rose by 18.3% to 11,860 thousand in January-March 2019, from 10,026
thousand in January-March 2018.
Travel receipts
In January-March
2019, travel receipts totalled €747 million, up 34.8% relative to the same
period of 2018. This development was driven by a 23.2% increase in receipts
from residents of the EU28, which came to €402 million or 53.8% of total travel
receipts, and by a 50.6% rise in receipts from residents outside the EU28 to
€333 million.
In
particular, receipts from euro area residents increased by 15.9% year-on-year
to €251 million, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries
also rose, by 37.7% to €150 million.
Among
major countries of origin, receipts from Germany rose by 4.9% to €82 million
and receipts from France rose by 53.1% to €27 million. Receipts from the United
Kingdom also increased, by 70.7% to €71 million. Turning to non-EU28 countries,
receipts from Russia rose by 74.5% to €16 million, whereas receipts from the
United States increased by 113.5% to €74 million.
Travel receipts by trip purpose
Looking
at the breakdown of non-resident expenditure in Greece by trip purpose, trips
for personal reasons represented the bulk of receipts in January-March 2019,
with a share of 78.4% in total expenditure, up from 74.7% in the same period of
2018, while the corresponding receipts increased by 41.4%. Within this
category, leisure accounted for the largest share of total expenditure
(January-March 2019: 50.3%, January-March 2018: 44.0%), with the corresponding
receipts increasing by 54.3% to €376 million. Trips for the purpose of visiting
family, with a share of 15.4% in total expenditure, showed a rise of 18.8% in
corresponding receipts. Receipts from trips for health purposes rose by 45.0%
to €13 million. Finally, receipts from business trips increased by 15.3%, but
their share in total receipts declined (January-March 2019: 21.6%,
January-March 2018: 25.3%).
Inbound traveller flows
As
already mentioned, the number of inbound visitors in January-March 2019
rose by 7.0% to 1,969 thousand, from 1,840 thousand in January-March 2018. Specifically,
visitor flows through airports increased by 19.5%, whereas visitor flows
through road border-crossing points declined by 5.3%. Visitors from within the
EU28 accounted for 54.5% of the total number of visitors, while visitors from
outside the EU28 accounted for 43.8%.
In January-March 2019, visitors from the EU28 increased by 0.2% relative to the
same period of 2018. This development is attributed to an increase in the
number of visitors from the non-euro area EU28 countries by 2.0% to 557
thousand, as visitors from within the euro area fell by 1.7% to 515 thousand. The number of visitors from non-EU28 countries rose
by 19.1% to 863 thousand.
In
particular, visitors from Germany decreased by 9.6% to 177 thousand, while
visitors from France increased by 42.8% to 55 thousand. Visitors from the
United Kingdom also increased, by 41.8% to 143 thousand. Finally, turning to
non-EU28 countries, the number of visitors from Russia rose by 89.9% to 30
thousand, while the number of visitors from the United States also increased,
by 47.4% to 104 thousand.
Overnight stays
In January-March
2019, overnight stays in Greece totalled 11,860 thousand, up by 18.3% from
10,026 thousand in January-March 2018. This is attributed to increases by 5.1%
in nights spent by residents of the EU28 and by 48.7% by residents of non-EU28
countries. The rise in stays by residents of the EU28 reflected an increase of
29.7% in nights spent by residents of non-euro area EU28 countries, as nights
spent by residents of the euro area fell by 5.0%. The number of overnight stays
declined by 27.7% for German residents, whereas it rose by 21.6% for French
residents and by 33.7% for UK residents. Turning to non-EU28 countries, the
number of overnight stays by Russian residents increased by 133.8%, while
overnight stays by US residents rose by 54.9%.
Cruises
Since
2012, the Bank of Greece conducts a Cruise Survey in order to enrich the data
collected through its Border Survey.
Following a standardised methodology, detailed cruise data for the period January-March
2019 were collected at 16 Greek ports, covering 85.3% of all cruise ship
arrivals.
The
period under review saw 68 cruise ship arrivals (January-March 2018: 41) and
91.8 thousand cruise passenger visits (January-March 2018: 67.2 thousand).
According to the Cruise Survey, 82.2% of all cruise passengers were transit
visitors, with an average of 2.4 stopovers at Greek ports of call (up from 1.5
stopovers in January-March 2018).
Total
receipts from cruise passengers in January-March 2019 rose by 64.9% year-on-year
to €12.4 million. Of this amount, €0.8 million was already captured in the
Border Survey data, as it represents receipts from visitors leaving the country
through Greek last ports, while the remaining €11.6 million concern additional
receipts data recorded by the Cruise Survey.
Chart 7
shows a breakdown of cruise receipts by port. The port of Piraeus ranks first
with a share of 52.0% in total cruise receipts, followed by the port of
Heraklion with 23.3% and the port of Corfu with 6.0%. The seven most important
cruise ship ports account for 93.1% of total cruise receipts and 84.5% of total
cruise passenger visits.
In the
period under review, total overnight stays ashore increased year-on-year by
28.1% to 130 thousand, with a positive impact on cruise receipts. The total
number of cruise passengers fell by 15.8% to an estimated 38 thousand.
Balance of travel services by
region
As shown
by the Border Survey, travel receipts (excluding
cruises) in the period January-March 2019 amounted to €735
million. Four regions accounted for the bulk (80.8%) of total receipts (Table
8), namely: Attica (€393 million), Central Macedonia (€127 million), the
Southern Aegean (€41 million) and Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (€33 million).
The remaining regions (Crete, Western Greece, the Peloponnese, Central Greece,
Epirus, Thessaly, the Ionian Islands, Western Macedonia and the Northern
Aegean) together accounted for €141 million.
Visits
to Greece (all 13 regions combined) in January-March 2019 totalled 2,179
thousand. The number of visits exceeds the number of inbound visitors, as
travellers may visit more than one region in the course of one trip.
The four
most popular regional destinations, accounting for 80.7% of total visits, were:
Attica (846 thousand visits), Central Macedonia (536 thousand), Eastern
Macedonia and Thrace (297 thousand) and the Southern Aegean (80 thousand). The
remaining regions (Epirus, Central Greece, Western Greece, the Peloponnese,
Crete, Thessaly, Western Macedonia, the Ionian Islands and the Northern Aegean)
together accounted for 420 thousand visits.
The
number of overnight stays in Greece in the period under review totalled 11,772
thousand. According to the breakdown into the 13 regions, five regions
accounted for 81.0% of total overnight stays, namely: Attica (5,642 thousand
nights), Central Macedonia (2,167 thousand), Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (630
thousand), Crete (603 thousand) and the Southern Aegean (488 thousand). The
remaining regions (the Peloponnese, Western Greece, the Ionian Islands, Central
Greece, Epirus, Thessaly, the Northern Aegean and Western Macedonia) together
accounted for 2,242 thousand overnight stays.
Related link: Developments in the balance of travel services: January - March 2019 - Appendix
The remaining
1.7% corresponds to data on cruise passenger flows other than those collected
through the Border Survey (“non-BS cruise data”).
It should be
noted that each same-day visit, irrespective of duration, is counted as one
overnight stay.