Tourism receipts in Greece
"reached record levels
" in 2022 compared to 2019, the benchmark year before the explosion of the Covid-19 pandemic, Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said on Tuesday.
"Despite the difficulties of 2022, the consequence of the war in Ukraine, Greece has managed to reach record levels, compared to the figures for the year 2019"
, underlined the minister, quoted by the Greek press agency, Ana.
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According to figures available from the Greek Statistical Authority (Elstat),
“there was a 23.4% and 13.6% rise in August in revenue from accommodation and catering respectively compared to 2019. “
, specified the minister during a conference of the Union of the tourist companies (Sete) in Athens.
“It shows that our strategy has been effective despite the negative economic situation”
(war in Ukraine, inflation, etc.), he noted.
For his part, the president of Sete, Yannis Retsos, estimated during this conference that this year,
“tourist revenues will reach and probably exceed those of 2019”
, according to Ana.
Greece has worked hard this year to make up for the reduction in its tourist receipts suffered during the first two years of the pandemic.
The year 2019 is a benchmark year for Greek tourism with a record number of 33 million tourists, which had strongly contributed to the recovery of the economy after a decade of debt crisis (2009-2018).
The engine of the country's economy, tourism represents almost a quarter of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Hit by high inflation like many European countries, Greece forecasts growth of 5.3% this year before slowing to 2.1% in 2023, according to the draft state budget published last week.
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