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The balance of tourism for the period January-September 2012 showed a profit of 7.581 billion euro (a 0.5% increase to 37 million euro compared to the same period of 2011). The number of tourists from the EU decreased, but the number of visitors from Russia increased significantly. According to the Tourist balance of payments, published by the National Bank of Greece on the basis of revised results by border authorities, the positive development is due to the fact that the 303 million euro (3.2%) decrease in revenues from tourists is less compared to the cost reduction - 340 million euro (19%).

Limitation of tourism revenues is the result of the 5.2% reduction in the number of arrivals. In contrast, the average cost of travelling increased by 2.1% (14 euro) and reached 670 euro. Expenditures for one night also increased (71 euro in the period January-September 2012 versus 70 euro in the same period of 2011), while the average length of stay did not change significantly - 9.4 nights, on average. As a consequence of the reduced number of arrivals, although the average length of stay did not change, comes the reduction in the number of overnight stays - 5%.

Revenues from tourists decreased by 3.2% due to the 6.7% reduction in the incomes of residents of EU countries. These amount to 5.943 billion euro and represent 6508% of the total revenues. Revenues from tourists from non-EU countries increased by 4.1% and amounted to 3.088 billion euro. Revenues from residents of Eurozone countries amounted to 3.882 billion euro and decreased by 12.9%, while those from residents of other EU countries, outside the Eurozone, increased by 7.9%. As for the most important markets, revenues from tourists from Germany fell by 9.9% to 1.44 billion euro, from France - 8.9% and reached 711 million euro, while revenues from tourists from Britain increased by 23.8%, reaching 1.305 billion euro. Of the rest of the countries outside the EU, revenues from Russian tourists increased by 32.1% and reached 896 million euro, while revenues from American tourists fell by 19.2% and reached 357 million euro.

Revenues from leisure travellers were 1.9% less (146 million euro), and this led to a 2.2% decrease in revenues from travel for personal reasons, in general. Revenues from travel for personal reasons represented the largest share of trips in the first nine months of 2012 - 95.1% versus 94% in the same period of 2011. Of the travel for personal reasons, travelling for fun represented the largest share of travel expenses (January-September 2012 - 83.5%; January-September 2011 - 82.4% of the total costs) and travelling for relatives/family visits represented 4% of the total costs of travel in the first nine months of 2012 (during the same period in 2011 they were 4.3%). Revenues from business trips recorded the largest decrease (19.9%), leading to a reduction in their share in the total revenues by 1.1% (January-September 2012 - 4.9%; January-September 2011 - 6%).

A total of 13,483,000 tourists visited the country in the first nine months of 2012. Of these, 63.4% were from the EU and 36.6% - from non-EU countries. The number of tourists from the EU declined by 8.3% compared to the same period last year, mainly due to the 11.7% decrease in the number of tourists from the countries of the Eurozone. The number of tourists from other EU countries outside the Eurozone fell by 2.8% and reached 3.426 million. The number of non-EU tourists increased slightly by 0.6% and increased their share in the total number of tourists by 2.1%. The number of tourists from Germany and France decreased by 5.3% and 14.4%, respectively, while those from the UK increased by 15.3%. The number of arrivals from Russia increased by 23.7%, while the number of visitors from the USA fell by 23.3%.

Overnight stays in the first nine months of 2012 decreased by 5% to 126.692 million versus 133.373 million in the previous year. The decrease is due to the 7.3% reduction of overnight stays of tourists from the EU. Their share in the total number of nights also decreased by 1.8% (January-September 2012 - 70.1%; January-September 2011 - 71.8 %). Overnight stays of tourists from countries outside the EU increased by 0.9%, while the total share increased to 29.9% in January-September 2012 versus 28.2% for the same period of 2011. The greatest decrease in overnight stays was marked by residents of the Eurozone - 11.5%, but these were partially offset by the 1.6% increase in the number of tourists from EU Member States outside the Eurozone.

Overnight stays of residents of France and Germany decreased by 15.6% and 5.4%, respectively, while those of UK residents increased by 20.1%. For the other countries outside the EU, overnight stays of Russians increased by 25.3%, while USA tourists marked a 17.7% decrease in their overnight stays.