ATHENS: The bank of Greece stated that, Greece received 24.27 million tourists in 2014, representing an increase of 20.7% compared to 20.1 million visitors in the previous year, according to data released by the Bank of Greece.
Tourism revenues increased by 10.2% and reached 13.393 million euros due to an increase in international visitors, with the average cost per trip falling by 8.7% and totaling 552 euros. In 2014 the number of tourists from the European Union (EU) increased by 25.9% compared to 2013, while visitor arrivals from other countries rose by 18.8%.
Specifically, tourist arrivals from France grew by 27%, from the UK by 13.2% and from Germany by 8.5%. Russian arrivals declined by 7.6%. In contrast, tourist arrivals from the US increased by 26.9% totaling 592,000 holidaymakers.
In terms of tourism revenue, spending by visitors resident in the EU grew by 14.8% amounting to 8.243 billion euros, while non-EU tourist spending totaled 4.762 billion euros, up 5.2%. Broken down by country of origin, revenues from tourists from Germany stood at 1.995 billion euros, a 5.0% increase. Revenues from French tourists totaled 1.129 billion euros, up 24.7%, and revenues from the UK amounted to 1.553 billion, up 14.6%.
In 2014 Greece recorded 3,858 cruise ship arrivals, 9.96% fewer than in 2013 when arrivals reached 4,285. Cruise ship visitors totaled 2.4 million, which represents an increase of 0.9% over the previous year. Total income from cruise ship passengers declined by 14.5%, compared to the previous year, and amounted to 457 million euros. The port of Piraeus, with 38.9% of the total, is the most important port for cruise ship arrivals, ahead of Corfu, with 14.7%, and Santorini, with 9.6%.
