Greece Welcomes Growing Number of American Travelers

The US is evolving into a main source market for Greece this year, with analysts expecting arrivals to surpass last year’s 1 million mark and tourism revenues to exceed 1.2 billion euros recorded in 2022.

According to the latest data released by the Bank of Greece (BoG), travel receipts generated by American travelers increased by 35.3 percent to 216.9 million euros in June and by 54.4 percent to 523.4 million euros in the first half (H1) of the year.

At the same time, arrivals from the US rose by 38.8 percent to 209.3 thousand in June and by a massive 62.7 percent to 528.3 thousand in January-June compared to the same periods in 2022.

In the first half of pre-Covid 2019, a record year for Greek tourism, 422,000 travelers from the US had visited Greece generating 397.3 million euros in travel receipts.

Source:BoG.

The stronger figures are the result of increased flight connectivity. Many airlines increased their direct flights to Greece this year after ongoing talks with the Greek Tourism Ministry. This summer alone airlines offer 60 flights to Greece per week. Regular Athens-bound flights run from US airports in New York, Washington DC, Boston, Atlanta and Chicago. The ministry is now aiming to maintain the high number of direct flights throughout the year.

Greece tourism stakeholders hope to keep the momentum going given that US travelers spend more on average than other nationalities. Indicatively, non-residents visiting Greece spent an average 594.4 euros per trip in the first half of the year down by 2.2 percent over 2022 compared to 990 euros spent by US travelers.  In June, average spending per trip came to 665.8 euros compared to American visitors who spent 1,036 euros on average.