Significant deviations have appeared so far between unofficial data and official figures collected by the relevant development ministry on the number of tourist arrivals in the country and, more importantly, tourism sector remittances.
Figures have been collected up to and through the summer peak holiday season.
Differences have also been detected both in terms of figures for the domestic market and foreign markets.
In a statement to “N”, alternate tourism minister Elena Kountoura said the deviation in the two sets of figures is “troubling” for the ministry’s services and necessitates “further investigation”.
Her statements come a month after a surprising figure showing tourism-related revenues down in July 2016, yoy. The provisional figures were released by the Bank of Greece.
The BoG figures for August 2016 drew nothing less than bewilderment at the ministry and amongst tourism-related chambers of commerce, given that the BoG cited a drop of 750 million euros, yoy, in August 2016’s revenues, as well as a forecast for a year-on-year decrease in the total.
Albeit provisional in nature, the figures sent a chill through the tourism sub-ministry, which operates under the auspices of the development ministry.
“We can’t proceed with a safe assessment on where the tourism revenue (figure) will end by the end of the year,” Kountoura said.
The alternate tourism minister hails from the small rightist-populist Independent Greeks (AN.EL) party that serves as leftist SYRIZA's junior coalition partner.
According to the ministry’s provisional figures, tourism arrivals in the country increased by one million over the first nine months of the year, and in comparison with the Jan-Sept period in 2015.
