Alpha Bank: More than 18 million tourists in Greece in 2013

"Greek tourism was boosted unprecedentedly in the last quarter of 2013, compared to 2012, and therefore it is estimated that the number of foreign tourists hosted in Greece in 2013 will exceed 18 million against 15.7 million in 2012 and 16.4 million in 2011," the latest weekly bulletin of Alpha Bank says.
 
The bulletin also notes that according to SETE, in the fourth quarter of 2013, 1,273,4 million tourists arrived by charter flights from abroad, compared with 1,051 million in the fourth quarter of 2012, an increase of 21.1%.
 
Moreover, travel revenues rose by 14.9%, to 11.8 billion euros in 2013. The surplus of travel services amounted to 10.1 billion euros, an increase of 17.7% on a yearly basis.
 
Arrivals from EU and Eurozone countries increased by 7.2% and 8% respectively, while a significant increase was shown by arrivals from Germany (7.7%), France (18.0%) and other EU countries outside the Eurozone (+6.1%), against a decline of 4.3% from the United Kingdom.
 
Arrivals from Russia presented a new significant increase of 54.7% and amounted to 1348.1 thousand travelers. The rapid rise of the tourist flow from Russia has produced 1.337 billion euros against 0.941 billion in 2012. In November 2013 there was a decrease of passenger traffic from Russia (11.5%). Lastly, the arrivals from the U.S. increased by 24.5% in 2013 to 453 thousand visitors.
 
The data of border surveys of the Bank of Greece show that the incoming passenger traffic increased by 15.3% in 2013, compared with a decrease of 5.6% in the corresponding period of 2012.