Study: Seasonality Still Impacting Tourism in Greece

Photo © Maria Theofanopoulou.

Seasonality still needs to be addressed by Greece’s tourism industry, according to a recent study which found that 56 percent of all arrivals, 58 percent of overnight stays and 60 percent of total revenues were concentrated in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022.

More specifically, according to the “Inbound Tourism 2019-2022 | Markets Profile” study which analyses data in 25 markets from pre-pandemic 2019 to 2022 carried out by INSETE, the  Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body, 66 percent of all arrivals, 69 percent of overnight stays and 68 percent of travel receipts by travelers from non-EU Countries were recorded in Q3 reflecting a higher seasonality compared to EU countries.

Photo © GTP

Examining EU countries, 59 percent of arrivals, 59 percent of overnight stays and 61 percent of receipts were recorded in Q3.

Source markets that were not as seasonal in Q3 included Turkey (37 percent), Albania (40 percent), Spain (42 percent), Cyprus (43 percent), Switzerland (45 percent), North Macedonia (46 percent), and the US (47  percent).

The study also found that all indicators showed marked improvement in 2022 over 2019. Indicatively, average spending  per person was up by 10 percent to 620 euros from 564 euros in 2019; average spending per night was up by 5 percent to 79.5 euros in 2022 from 76.1 euros in 2019; and average length of stay was up by 5 percent from 7.4 nights in 2019 to 7.8 nights last year.

Overall in 2022 compared to 2019, arrivals were down by 11 percent from 31.3 million in 2019 to 27.8 million a year ago; overnight stays dropped by 7 percent to 216.9 million in 2022 from 232.5 million in 2019 and travel receipts were down by 2 percent from 17.7 billon in 2019 to 17.3 billion in 2022.

In terms of source markets for Greece in the period under review, the number of arrivals from eurozone countries increased by 4 percent, overnight stays by 7 percent and revenues by 4 percent.

Non-EU countries recorded a 27 percent decline in arrivals, a 17 percent drop in overnight stays and a 2 percent drop in spending.

INSETE analysts add that traditional markets supporting Greek tourism including the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and the US showed significant percentage increases in all key indexes.

The largest declines were recorded in the Balkan markets, with the exception of Romania, and in the long-haul markets of Australia, Canada, and Russia.