How many businesses opened and how many closed during pandemic

According to data from Corfu Chamber of Commerce, there has been a decrease in the number of new businesses over the two years of the pandemic. What is encouraging, however, is the fact that, despite the economy being hit hard by the Covid pandemic, fewer businesses in Corfu have closed compared to 2019.

How many new businesses and how many closures

According to the Chamber of Commerce, there were 784 new business registrations in 2019 (90 in the trade sector, 18 in manufacturing, 239 in tourism, 434 in services) and 122 closures (34 in trade, 16 in manufacturing, 11 in tourism, 61 in services).

In 2020, the first year of the pandemic, there were 488 new business registrations (84 in trade, 21 in manufacturing, 85 in tourism, 296 in services) - 296 fewer than in 2019. However, despite the pandemic, the number of closures was just 99 (28 in trade, 12 in manufacturing, 12 in tourism, 43 in services).

This year, 2021 (up to 1/12), there were 508 new business registrations (95 in trade, 19 in manufacturing, 101 in tourism, 292 in services) and 78 closures (23 in trade, 3 in manufacturing, 12 in tourism, 39 in services).

Leading sector

The services sector, despite the fact that there has been a decrease over the 2019-21 period, has had the highest number of new businesses each year. This is followed by the tourism sector, which has had a significant number of business closures - in 2019 there were 239 new businesses, dropping to 85 in 2020 and then increasing slightly to 101 new business registrations in 2021.

Female entrepreneurship

There has been a clear increase in female entrepreneurship, with the number of businesses with at least one woman gradually increasing over the period 2019-21 - 5,153 in 2019, 5,250 in 2020 and 5,324 in 2021.