Greece is having a better-than-expected summer time tourism season and this yr’s revenues will assist alleviate the influence of hovering power costs on society, authorities spokesman Giannis Oikonomou stated on Thursday (4 August).
Tourism accounts for a fifth of the Greek financial system and one in 5 jobs. Authorities and business officers had forecast this yr’s revenues from the very important sector may attain 80% to 90% of the record-high degree seen in 2019. Some officers at the moment are hopeful this yr may beat that file.
“As we undergo the primary days of August, we are able to see that tourism visitors in our nation is registering a robust momentum, with tourism flows exceeding even essentially the most optimistic preliminary forecasts,” Oikonomou instructed a daily briefing.
“Tourism revenues are enabling the state to additional assist society, which is being battered by crises in power and elsewhere, and to offer us useful reserves forward of the approaching winter,” he stated.
Overseas arrivals on the nation’s airports reached 3,481,000 in June, up 193% from 1,190,000 arrivals in June of final yr, and across the identical degree as in June 2019, Oikonomou stated.
He stated over 1 million guests had been anticipated this week in Athens, which has a inhabitants of about 4 million.
Greece, some of the common summer time locations in Europe, drew a file 32 million guests in 2019, bringing in about 18 billion euros in revenues.
It suffered its worst yr on file in 2020, when the COVID pandemic introduced world journey to a standstill, however the sector has been recovering since.
Greece, like many European Union nations, is going through a pointy rise in energy payments pushed by sky-rocketing pure fuel costs, because the battle in Ukraine and European sanctions on Russia heighten considerations over the safety of fuel provides.
The federal government has spent about 7 billion euros on energy subsidies and different measures since September to assist households, companies and farmers pay their electrical energy and fuel payments.
