17m tourists in Greece Jan-Oct.

The number of tourists visiting Greece topped 17 million, in the ten-month period of January-October 2013. According to Bank of Greece figures tourist arrivals increased by 15.5% year on year, with tourism generated income rising by 14.8% to 4.35 billion euros.

The figures show that revenue from tourists outside the EU rose by 32% reaching 4.355 billion euros, while revenue from EU citizens touring the country reached 7.086 billion registering an increase of 10.5% as against the same period last year.

Income left by tourists from eurozone countries increased by 12.7% for a sum of 4.737 billion euros, while that from non-eurozone EU countries rose by 6.3%.

More specifically, revenues from German tourists increased by 10.4% reaching 1.788 billion euros, income from French tourists increased by 22.8% reaching 921 million euros, while revenues from UK tourists reached 1.362 billion euros marking a drop by 2.6%.

From non-EU countries, revenue from Russian tourists rose by 43.3% reaching 1.341 billion euros, while revenue from tourists arriving from the USA increased by 29.5% totalling 513 million euros.

Increased revenue from the tourism sector contributed to a growth of surplus in the tourism balance of payments by 18%, or 1.5 billion euros, with a final total of 10 billion euros.