Based on data gathered by The Bank of Greece, the balance of travel services in April 2020 showed an estimated surplus of €5 million, compared with a surplus of €211 million in April 2019, due to the travel restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Travel receipts in April 2020 fell by 98.7% to €7 million, from €544 million in April 2019, while travel payments also decreased by 99.2% (April 2020: €3 million, April 2019: €332 million).
The fall in travel receipts resulted from a 96.2% decline in inbound traveller flows and a 62.2% decrease in average expenditure per trip. Net receipts from travel services offset 0.4% of the goods deficit and accounted for 1.2% of total net receipts from services.
In January-April 2020, the balance of travel services showed a surplus of €190 million, down from a surplus of €376 million in the same period of 2019.
Travel receipts fell by €664 million or 51.4% to €626 million, while travel payments also decreased, by €478 million or 52.3% to €436 million.
The drop in travel receipts stemmed from a 21.5% fall in average expenditure per trip and a 36.1% decrease in inbound traveller flows.
Net receipts from travel services offset 2.8% of the goods deficit and accounted for 12.5% of total net receipts from services.
Only 38.000 inbound visitors in April
The number of inbound visitors in April 2020 fell by 96.2% year-on-year to 38 thousand.
Visitor flows through airports were almost zero, whereas visitor flows through road border-crossing points declined by 88.3%.
This overall decrease was due to lower visitor flows from both within the EU27 (down 96.1%) and outside the EU27 (down 96.3%).
Among major countries of origin, there were only some modest visitor flows from Germany, and those were down 99.2% year-on-year.
How many inbound visitors from each country were registered from January to April 2020
In January-April 2020, the number of visitors from Germany fell by 53.0% to 134 thousand, while visitors from France decreased by 71.9% to 34 thousand.
Turning to non-EU27 countries, the number of visitors from the United Kingdom fell by 43.6% to 117 thousand, while visitors from the United States dropped by 44.5% to 86 thousand and visitors from Russia decreased by 48.1% to 22 thousand.
