Tourism in Greece
Last update October 5, 2024
Greece's constantly growing industry, and so important to the overall GDP of the country that intensive planning and governmental work goes into each tourist season. In 2023, record numbers of visitors brought about limits on numbers of people visiting the Acropolis each day, and such restrictive measures are being implemented on other spots (such as some of the most popular islands) in order to overcome a basic physical reality: there's only so much room at the hottest tourist locations.
In the past there was always a self-limiting aspect to buying ferry tickets to get to the islands, and the flow of visitors was managed by seasonal changes and the attitudes of many tourists which was that many just wanted to get to a good spot to enjoy the sun and the water, it did not necessarily have to be a "name" location. The internet has changed this, and now a "selfie" by a tourist at a "super" popular destination has become a pilgrimage and goal to flesh out their social-media presence with the rest of the world. In result, "selfie" tourism is clogging the famous location names of Greece. This is of course a money-flow opportunity for Greece which is still building back from the 2009 economic crash, but at the same time, too much of a good thing is pressuring some of the most popular locations in ways that Greece hasn't faced before.
The National Bank of Greece (NGB) predicts that 2024 will see 35 million tourist arrivals, a 7% increase from 2023, and 22 billion euros in tourism receipts, a 10% increase from 2023.
Be sure to see: Visiting Greece and Moving to Greece
Important Tourism Links:
Greece National Tourism Organization GNTO
Statistical info PDF for July 2023 from the Insete.gr Greece Tourism Site
HORECA Expo
Annual international exhibition for Hospitality and Foodservice companies
Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE)
Began 1991, association of tourist-oriented Greek businesses
GREECE TOURISM MEDIA LINKS
Measuring the drop in purchasing power of tourists this season
October 5, 2024:Story at Capital [Greek]
Does the decrease in tourism revenue for July mean a change in travel behavior?
September 27, 2024:Story at Powergame [Greek]
Bank of Greece reports non-resident arrivals up 11% year-on-year and tourism receipts up 5.6%, near to €11 billion euros
September 20, 2024: Story at Keep Talking Greece [English]
Tourism count of 11.6 million arrivals for first half of season
August 21, 2024: Story at Imerisia [Greek]
Tourists warned about Covid variant
July 25, 2024: Story at UK Independent MSN [English]
Tourism numbers headed for record high
July 23, 2024:Story at Imerisia [Greek]
Tourism: numbers up but spending is down
July 23, 2024: Story at Naftemporiki [Greek]
Greece now using drones to fight beach squatting
July 21, 2024: Story at Outlook India [English]
More about Beaches in Greece
Greece attracting Turkish tourists over Turkey itself
July 23, 2024: Story at Imerisia [Greek]
The most popular destinations in the social tourism program
July 19, 2024:Story at Parapolitika [Greek]
Ferry ticket prices nearly "out of control"
July 15, 2024: Story at Protothema [Greek]
Effect of tourism on short water supplies in the Cyclades islands
July 11, 2024: Story at Eleftherostypos [Greek]
Average tourist occupancy higher in 2024 compared to 2023
July 7, 2024:Story at Capital [Greek]
Cheapest destinations in Greece for 2024 are these three stunning islands
May 31, 2024: Story at Travel off Path [English]
EasyJet estimates more than 2.39 million visitors to Greece for 2024 using their airline
May 15, 2024: Story at Imerisia [Greek]
The tourism tax in Greece
January 9, 2024: Story at Travel Pulse MSN [English]
Golden Visas and the Ellinikon
January 8, 2024: Story at Yahoo News [English]
MEDIA REPORTS 2023
The $5,500 tour of the Acropolis
December 26, 2023: Story at MSN Insider [English]
The demographics of tourists coming to Greece
August 22, 2023: Story at Powergame [Greek]
Visitors again allowed to visit the Bourtzi Island Fortress in Nafplio
August 3, 2023: Story at Greek Reporter [English]
Visitor caps for Acropolis, with hourly limits
August 3, 2023 - Times Union [English]
The problem of illegal tour guides
April 19, 2023 - Story at To Vima [Greek]
The "economical" tourist destinations in Europe of 2023
Feb 21, 2023 - Story at Ethnos [Greek]
The accounting for the numbers of tourists and earnings from 2022
Feb 2023: Numbers at Imerisia [Greek]
MEDIA REPORTS 2022
Greece is in the lead for world's "luxury vacation" destination
July 10, 2022: Story at Imerisia [Greek]
Top UNESCO sites in Greece
July 10, 2022: Story at Greek Reporter [English]
How to plan "an epic photoshoot" in Greece
June 13, 2022: Story at Yahoo News [English]
Revamping Greek airports to reduce delays
Story at OT Financial Post [English via Google Translate]
"Google Trends" shows Greece as number one destination interest
April 12, 2022: Story at Devonlive [English]
Greece in the lead for short-term leases this tourist season
April 11, 2022: Story at Imerisia [Greek]
Digital Nomads program from the Ministry of Tourism in pilot cities of Ermoupolis, Heraklion and Kalamata
March 20, 2022: Story at OT Financial Post [Greek]
Rhodes hotels looking at tour contract increases
March 20, 2022: Story at OT Financial Post [Greek]
Greek launches new tourism campaign to boost weekend visits
February 1, 2022: Story at Keep Talking Greece [English]
Americans planning major European trips in 2022
January 23, 2022: Story at OT GR [Greek]
Which tourists spend the most in Greece?
January 12, 2022: Story at OT Financial Post [Greek]
Central Bank confidence on Greece reaching pre-Covd tourism again
January 7, 2022: Story at GT Pages [English]
Note: The Bank of Greece estimated 76.9% decline in tourism in the first half-year of the pandemic.
Massive 80% tourism drop 2021 holiday season
January 2, 2022: Story at Powergame [Greek]
Will summer tourism "be late"?
January 3, 2022: Story at Imerisia [Greek]
Tourism goal for 2022: normalization
December 31, 2021: Story at OT Fincnial Post [Greek]
Can tourism produce €27 billion by 2030?
December 29, 2021: Story at GTP Pages [English]
Tourism topped €10 billion through October
December 21, 2021: Story at GTP Pages [Greek]
Country-wide turnover in accommodation increased by 105.9% compared to October 2020
December 21, 2021: Story at Imerazante [Greek]
Greece "luxury tourism" at showcase in France
December 20, 2021: Story at GTP Pages [English]
"Total tourism restart" in 2022 say Tourism Minister Kikilias
December 17, 2021: Story at GTP Pages [Greek] and at Imerazante [Greek]
Bookings for winter tourism
"Currently, occupancy rates in Athens hotels are around 15%," he said, unable to see more than 25% even in the best of cases. The situation in Athens is incredibly inactive with a huge deviation from the levels of 2019.
December 12, 2021: Story at Powergame [Greek]
Action plans for 2022 Greek tourism
The successful course of Greek tourism toward 2030 requires a transition from spontaneous to targeted development...
December 11, 2021: Story at eKathimerini [English]
Tourism in 2021 boosted Greece recovery
December 7, 2021: Story at Bloomberg [English]
Nine months of tourism = 11.6 million visitors
Top visits from Germany, France, UK and USA
November 22, 2021: Data at Naftemporiki [Greek]
The "twelve essential spots" in Greece
In reality, you could spend months on end exploring all that Greece has to offer, but if you’re planning on undertaking a whirlwind tour, these 12 sites make for essential stops."
Here's the first five of the "12 essential" places of Greece according to Lonely Planet:
Delphi
Athens
The beaches of Lefkada – Protothema
"Eating It Up In Athens" – Porthole
July 6, 2021: A quick survey of Athens eating places.
Thumbs up and we are off to another local institution, isolated from tourists. It’s a small little shop specializing in the superstar of all Greek food, souvlaki. There are several versions of this bbq meat but pork is the real deal and this place rules among locals as the best of the rest.
Vaccinations leading the way to 15 million tourists for 2021?
May 9, 2021: Story at Skai [in Greek]
"Vaccine passport" could bring tourists to Greece
Feb 18, 2021:Story at UK Times [English]
Tourism facts in Greece:
A quarter of the Greek GDP is from tourism (fact from Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation)
Greece's 2018 economic growth of 1.9% contained 1% due to tourism's increase (21.6 billion euros, 11.7% of GDP) (fact from Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation)
The other large piece of the Greek economy is shipping which constitutes 7% of GDP.
During peak tourism season, half a million people are directly employed in tourism, and if the other businesses which are utilized for the tourism machine are added into this number (for example, transport), an estimated 44% of employment in Greece is linked to tourism.
90% of revenue that comes from abroad is tourism related.
2020 Update: to consider how much the pandemic has impacted Greece, consider this article:
Estimates on tourism earnings for 2020 shows sharp, significant decline versus 2019
Story at Skai [Greek]
Top visited locations in Greece 2019
The top visited places in Greece are (stats from Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation sete.gr):
- Athens
- Crete
- Thessaloniki
- Rhodes
- Corfu
- Kos
- Zakynthos
- Santorini
- Mykonos
- Kefalonia
- Kalamata
- Karpathos
Visiting Greece - advice and tips on coming to Greece
2019 - Tourism too important for Greek economy?- Story at eKathimerini
Tourism 2020 - Santorini
June 22, 2020 - "What happened on Santorini when the 'tourist machine' stopped"
This CNN article chronicles what happened as the pandemic lockdown closed the island off to everyone except residents, and the 'machine' or tourism came to a stop. This enabled a number of municipal projects to move forward without having to deal with the intrusions of hundreds of thousands of visitors, but there's no iron y that many of the projects were to improve in fa structure that serves the visitors. Asking a taverna owner what the visitor in 2020 could expect, a reply was "They will see Santorini, quiet and uncrowded like it used to be."
... Santorini [is] Greece's most visited island, receiving up to two million tourists annually -- many arriving on the gigantic cruise ships that can normally be seen parked in the middle of the natural bay below. The island will be welcoming international visitors via airplane once again from July 1, but cautions over the coronavirus mean their numbers will be far fewer than before...
Story at CNN News
Tourism 2019 beating 2018 numbers
Bank of Greece reports that tourism receipts totaled €537 in April 2019 versus €503 in the same month of 2018
Tourism 2018
2019 tourist season could differ from 2018's record rate
Story at Greek Reporter on comments made by President of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) Yiannis Retsos.
Tsipras: Greece expecting record high of 32 million tourists in 2018 - Athens News Agency
Greek current account deficit widens in April, tourism revenues increase - freemalaysiatoday
Thomas Cook to Invest €150M in Greek Tourism in 2018 - Greek Reporter
Fraport Greece sees double-digit percentage rise in 2018 passenger traffic - Reuters
Greece tourism at record high amid alarm over environmental cost - UK Guardian
National Tourism Organization invites 587 bloggers to promote the beauty of Greece - Protothema
Is Greece on the brink of an overtourism crisis? - UK Telegraph
Scenery of Astypalaia island, Greece (photos) - chinadaily.com
Tourism 2017
"Tourism was up 7 percent in 2017, and has been doubling the industry average for growth in recent years. That is good news in this vital sector of Greece’s economy. One in five jobs created in Greece is in the tourism sector. Some estimates are every 30 tourists create a new job for a Greek." - Fox News Story Nov 27, 2017
"27 million tourists in 2017 according to central Bank of Greece figures"
March 10, 2017
Greece looks to become top tourism destination in the world - Neoskosmos
"When asked if he thought the number of tourists would increase if Greece were to leave the eurozone, he rejected the idea as disastrous for local inhabitants.
"If Greece returns to the drachma we will have millions of tourists, but Greeks will be [living] in a ghetto, behind a wall that will separate them from the tourist areas, in the logic of the Caribbean. It would be an absolute disaster," he [SETE Andreas Andreadis] said."
Dec 26, 2013
Record Year for Greek Tourism - Greek Reporter"The NBG [National Bank of Greece] announced that Greece achieved its goal of welcoming more than 17 million tourists.
According to the data released on Tuesday during the January – October 10-month period, the number of tourists increased by 15.5% compared to the same period in 2012.
Russian tourists increased by 55.2% and reached 1.3 million while there was a significant increase of U.S. tourists (29.2%). A smaller increase was noticed in tourists from the Eurozone (8.2%) and the European Union (5.4%).
...Under these conditions Greece showed a travel surplus of 10,068 billion euros in the 10-month period from January to October 2013, a 17.9% increase compared to 2012."
May 2013
Greek PM invites China to 'join Greece's success story' - CS Monitor
"After global rating agency Fitch upgraded Greece's sovereign credit rating from CCC to B- last week, Mr. Samaras tried to convince Chinese officials that the economic crisis plaguing Greece would soon come to an end.
"I wouldn't be here if we in Greece hadn't turned our ship around," he told them during his visit, flanked by 71 Greek businessmen and members of his cabinet, who had to pay their own way to Asia because of budget austerity measures."
2013 Tourism to Greece down 5.5% in 2012 - Elstat
Arrivals from United States down -22.9%
Norway, Russia, Uk and Australia up.
"...in the period January- December of 2012 , arrivals of non-residents from abroad decreased by 5.5%, as compared with the same period of the year 2011.
More specifically, in January-December 2012 arrivals from Europe, which account for the majority of arrivals of non-residents to Greece (89.3%), registered a 5.5% decrease reflecting the same decrease observed for total arrivals, while arrivals from the Member States of the European Union recorded a decrease of 8,5%. Arrivals from Poland, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Bulgaria and Netherlands showed a significant decrease in absolute values.
On the other hand, a significant increase in the total of arrivals was observed in the cases of United Kingdom and Russia. As regards the participation of non-resident arrivals by country of origin, the largest number of arrivals came from Germany (13.6%), United Kingdom (12.4%) and France (6.3%).
Moreover, the corresponding data for the rest of the continents show a significant decrease in arrivals, in absolute values, from America, while an increase in absolute values is recorded for arrivals from Asia.
As regards the means of transportation and the point of entry, the data show that most arrivals are by air. During the aforementioned time period the airport with the largest share of traffic is Athens (17.1%) and then follow the airport of Irakleio (13.3%) and Rodos (10.3%).
Download Elstats complete press release with stats and tables.
May 2013
Luring Tourists Back to Greece - NY Times
"If last summer was a dark spot for tourism in this crisis-hit country, travelers are returning in greater numbers this year, lured by discounts of up to 20 percent on hotels in major cities...
“The Greek government is stable, and we are no longer under speculation that Greece will leave the euro,” said Xenophon Petropoulos, a spokesman for the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises. “The value-to-price ratio is excellent at the moment, and that’s helping to bring tourism back.”
With reports of anti-austerity protests last year and early this year fresh in people’s minds, however, the first question being asked by travelers is whether it is safe to visit Greece. The short answer is yes.
“You may have activity in Syntagma Square,” Mr. Petropoulos said. “But 500 meters away, people are drinking beer in Plaka.”
2010 - Athens trying to stabilize tourism drop to single digits
Related: Touring Greece
The Mountain Municipalities of Greece
Greece's Golden Visa program
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Last update May 26, 2021 | Updated July 28, 2024
