Tourism GDP for 2010 to 2020: New TSA results for Greece

Abstract

In many countries, early attempts in implementing TSA Tables suffer from limitations in available data. For Greece, pilot TSA Tables 1 to 6 were implemented in an EU-funded project for the reference year 2015. However, TSA Table 6 could not be implemented in all details, mainly due to limited resources of ELSTAT, the national statistical office. TSA Tables were not implemented for the years after 2015, partly due to needs for improving the TSA-related database which were revealed in the pilot project. Our paper presents methods for implementing the TSA Table 6 given only limited data on tourism expenditures and Supply and Use Tables and provides estimates of the Tourism Direct GPD for 2010 through 2020. Besides the methodological approach, our results show a rather pleasing picture of Greek tourism. In the years 2010 to 2019, Tourism Direct GDP was steadily growing and increased from 7,026 to 10,994 million Euros, an average annual growth rate of 5.1%; the GDP decreased annually by 2.2% on average. The TDGVA ratio increased from 3.1% to 5.5% and the TDGDP ratio from 3.1% to 6.0%, the average annual growth rate of the Tourism Direct GVA and GPD ratios amounting to 6.7% and 7.5%, respectively.