THESSALONIKI – There haven’t been as many tourists in Greece in 2022 as the record-busting year of 2019 – yet – but they’re spending big,  revenues from visitors exceeding 18 billion euros ($18.47 billion,) on a par with three yea rs earlier.

Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias, told the presidents of the Hellenic Hoteliers’ Federation the good news at the 37th Philonexia exhibition in the country’s second-largest city, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported.

“The Bank of Greece is releasing the official figures … but I believe that we have already exceeded the finance ministry’s target of 15 billion euros ($15.39 billion) in revenues, and we will see where it will end,” he said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ New Democracy government gambled on essentially ending COVID-19 pandemic health measures and it has paid off despite the continuance of scores of thousands of cases weekly, hospitalizations and deaths.

Greece was one of the world’s hotspots for people wanting to travel again as international air traffic resumed after two years of lockdowns and slowdowns that brought the sector to a crawl.

At the end of August, he said in some areas of Greece income from arrivals and trips had increased compared to the period before the pandemic after hopes the revenues would go past 20 billion euros ($20.52 billion.)

The bank’s data showed that the increase in the number of international travellers arriving in May led to a rise in travel receipts by a total of 536.4 per cent and by 547.9 in the first five months of this year, which means that the figures exceeded April levels, the site said.