Greek tourism is given a boost

Tourism income in crisis-hit Greece was up 10.6 per cent in the nine-month period to September, the Bank of Greece said yesterday, with Germans and Britons making up the biggest client segments.

The country cleared €7.6 billion during the period compared to €6.9 billion a year ago, the central bank said.

There were more than 14.2 million foreign arrivals in the country of 11 million, an increase of 10.4 per cent, at a time when domestic travel declined owing to tax rises and wage cuts from a radical austerity drive affecting Greek households.

After two years of sluggish demand, Greece is judged to have benefitted this year from unrest in neighbouring North Africa which forced travellers to seek alternative destinations. The average tourist spent just under €655 on their stay, a fall of 0.8 from last year, confirming hotelier claims earlier this year that prices were kept low under pressure from tour operators.

Germany led the eurozone arrival list with 1.89 million people, a 12.9 per cent increase over 2011 and another million Britons also visited, but their numbers fell by 5.7 per cent from last year, the b ank said.

The tourism industry makes up between 15 and 18 per cent of the country’s battered economy. Greece is struggling to escape bankruptcy with the help of loans from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund extended at the cost of painful fiscal sacrifices.