More Than 32 Million Tourists Visited Greece in 2023

More than 32 million tourists visited Greece in 2023, resulting in roughly €20.5 billion in income, according to data from the Bank of Greece (BoG) released on Thursday.

Travel receipts were 15.7 percent higher than 2022, the BoG says.

A significant factor in this is the increase in income from residents of countries in the European Union, which amounted to more than €11 billion, as well as the increase of tourists from non-EU nations, which added up to €8.5 billion.

The report says that receipts from residents of countries from the eurozone came to €9 billion, an increase of 12.4 percent, while the revenue from residents of EU countries outside the eurozone showed an increase of 7.8 percent and amounted to slightly more than €2 billion.

German visitors contributed €3.5 billion in income, an increase of 9.5 percent, and French tourists amounted to €1.4 billion, an increase of 11.6 percent.

From non-EU countries, the United Kingdom contributed €3.3 billion (5.8 percent increase) and the United States contributed to €1.3 billion (a whopping 14 percent increase).

The income from Russia understandably decreased by 20.8 percent and amounted to €32.8 million.

In terms of travel traffic, there was an increase of 17.6 percent to 32.7 million tourists in comparison to the 27.8 million tourists in 2022.

Specifically, traffic through airports saw an increase of 12.7 percent while travel through road border stations increased by 34.9 percent.

Travel traffic from EU countries came to 19.6 million travelers, an increase of 15.6 percent compared to 2022, while travel traffic from non-EU nations increased by 20.8 percent and came to 13 million travelers.

Travel traffic from countries in the euro zone increased by 11.5 percent as did traffic from outside the euro zone area, which went up by 24.4 percent.

Tourist traffic from Germany rose by 9.5 percent and reached 4.7 million travelers, while traffic from France increased by 4.2 percent and came to 1.831 million travelers.

Regarding countries outside the EU, travel traffic from the UK increased by 2.4 percent to 4.5 million travelers. From the US, traffic amounted to a 29.2 percent increase, specifically to 1.4 million travelers.

Greece heads for a new record in tourists for 2024

Greece is heading for a new record year in tourism in 2024, industry officials say, pointing to early bookings.

The current trajectory of airline reservations, encompassing both sold tickets and seats allocated by airlines for the upcoming season, indicates a potential tourism surge of up to 10 percent in 2024 compared to the remarkable highs achieved in 2023.

“Greece is heading for the highest performance of all time,” in 2024, TUI tourism group’s Head of Communications, Aage Dünhaupt, told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).

He pointed out that Crete, Rhodes, and Kos remain top destinations for customers of the company, which, this year, is beginning the summer season in Greece earlier than in any previous year.