Visitors from Russia, Turkey and other countries are spending significantly in Greece as the Greece tourism collected 3.3 billion Euros in the first half of 2013. The Russian footfall in Greece whic
h is likely to reach 2 million this year is hoping that a record year for tourism, with some 17 million international visitors expected, will help ease the recession.

According to Bank of Greece data, Russian visitors accounted for the biggest rise. They spent almost 341 million euros, which was up 42 percent on the same period last year.

The initial forecast for the number of Russian tourists this year stood at 1 million but this is now being revised to 1.2 million. Their number was up 37.6 percent in the January-May period, more than in any other competitor country destinations, such as Spain, Turkey or Cyprus.
In the April-July period Greek tourism witnessed the visitor number as 252,900, exceeding even arrivals from Germany, which totaled 222,070. This is also encouraging in terms of the projected revenues, as each Russian spends about 1,000 Euros on average while on foreign trips – slightly more than the average German tourist – when the average visitor to Greece lays out about 560 Euros. Recent estimates and supporting the available data so far, a further increase of up to 30 percent in the number of Russian visitors may be realized next year.