Tourism: Russian tourists spent the most money and even surpassed Americans

Although very few people came to our country this year, these were the richest tourists. We are talking about Russians, who recorded the highest average travel expenses among all nationalities who visited our country in the second quarter of 2023.

Having overtaken even the Americans, traditionally considered the most “wasteful,” Russian tourists spent 1,611.5 euros per trip in our country in the second quarter of 2023, according to the Bank of Greece, and took first place.

At the same time, Australians came close to them in terms of average expenses per trip – 1588.3 euros. The top five is completed by Canadians (1,127.9 euros), Americans (1,038 euros) and the Swiss (990.3 euros).

The number of Russians who visited Greece in the second quarter of 2023 did not exceed 10 thousand, but they didn’t seem to think about money. In fact, compared to 2019, when tens of thousands of Russian citizens continued to visit Greece (122.7 thousand in the second quarter of 2019), average expenses more than doubled (106.4%).

A significant reduction in the flow of Russian tourists to our country was a consequence of the sanctions imposed EU due to the military conflict in Ukraine. However, those who flew in on private jets, left very large sums at places visited (East Crete, Rhodes, etc.).

Foreign tourists coming from other countries continue to have very high average travel costs:

• Austrians (921 euros),
• Belgians (836 euros),
• Danes (785 euros),
• Germans (767 euros),
• Czechs (727 euros).

The most tight-fisted are Albanians (308 euros), Romanians (360 euros) and Cypriots (480 euros). Italians also spend little on vacation (548 euros).

As for the total amount from tourism receipts, we recall that, according to the Bank of Greece, for the period January-July 2023 it amounted to 10.32 billion euros, showing an increase of 20.2% compared to 2022 and 13.28 % compared to the corresponding period in 2019.

The increase in the seven months of 2023, compared to the corresponding period in 2022, is due to an increase in receipts from residents of EU-27 countries by 14.7%, which amounted to EUR 5,648.8 million, as well as from travelers from countries outside the EU -27 by 27.0%, amounting to 4403.4 million euros.

In more detail, receipts from residents of eurozone countries amounted to €4,550.6 million, an increase of 15.1%, while receipts from residents of EU-27 countries outside the eurozone showed an increase of 13.0%, amounting to €1,098.2 million.

In particular, financial receipts from tourists coming from Germany increased by 7.0%, amounting to 1,716.5 million euros. And from the French by 23.9%, amounting to 782.0 million euros.

From countries outside the EU27, receipts from the UK showed an increase of 11.9%, amounting to €1,620.3 million. Receipts from the US increased by 33.8% to 737.8 million euros, and from Russia by 13.7% to 21.7 million euros.

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