Tourism Min.: Tourism contributes to the excellent performance of the Greek economy

Greek Tourism Minister, Mr Vassilis Kikilias, referred to the excellent performance of the Greek economy, pointing out that the decisive impact and added value of Greek tourism in the country’s GDP is reflected in a particularly critical situation in the midst of multiple crises and inflationary pressures on an international level.

“The impressive 7.7% rate at which the Greek economy “ran” in the second quarter of 2022 and the revision of the first quarter to 8% confirm, in practice, the commitment of the Greek government to make life better for Greeks. These excellent performances – almost double the 4.1% of the eurozone average – reflect the decisive impact and added value of Greek tourism to the country’s GDP, and even more so at a particularly critical juncture amid multiple crises and inflationary pressures internationally”, he added.

According to Mr Kikilias, “as yesterday’s announcements by the Hellenic Statistical Authority show, exports of services – which include our tourism product – have increased by 7.2% in the second quarter of the year. These performances are added to the recent data of the Bank of Greece on the enhanced tourist flows -at record levels- to our country, which in turn are reflected both in travel receipts, which in June alone recorded an increase of 2.3% compared to June 2019, and in the average expenditure per trip, which is +15.9% compared to June 2019.”

Hard and methodical work

As he stressed, “These figures did not come about by chance. They are the result of collective effort, hard and methodical work. Since the beginning of last autumn, we have formulated the appropriate strategies and we extended the tourist season, which this year started earlier than ever before – as early as March – and is expected to be completed by the end of 2022. Moreover, we highlighted new destinations – more and more – in every corner of our country and we shaped the institutional environment that made our country a pole of attraction for the largest investment funds with a focus on tourism sector”.

“Our visitors are now spending more money and are staying more in our country, something that can be translated into tax revenues for the Greek economy, but also into multiple revenues for the commercial world and our local communities. And all this, having succeeded in compensating for this year’s losses from the Russian and Ukrainian markets due to the war, but also with the large market of China being closed – due to Covid-19 – which in all previous years significantly boosted our tourism”, he added, among other things.

Encouraging figures for the third quarter

Referring to the third quarter of the year – which includes the traditionally high tourist season for our country – Mr Kikilias noted that the first figures are already very encouraging. “And on this basis we continue. Because tourism is a national affair. It means new jobs, support for the turnover of companies operating around the sector, support for the primary sector and agricultural production, new investments, support for the income of the average Greek family. And it is a consistent commitment of our government that every euro added to the budget will be returned to the wallet of every Greek woman and every Greek man”, he concluded.