Greece May Welcome Over 4 Million Tourists in September

Photo by George Mastro on Unsplash.

Arrivals of foreign tourists in Greece is expected to move upwards in the first month of autumn, according to the number of airline seats that have been booked.

According to the Airdata tracker of the INSETE research body, the planned total seat capacity airlines to Greece expect to offer on inbound international flights for September right now exceeds four million (4,051,087), recording an increase of 7.3 percent compared to last year. If those seats are covered in their entirety, Greece this month should expect to welcome over 4 million travelers from key source markets including the UK, Germany, Italy, France, Netherlands, Israel, Switzerland, Cyprus, Austria, Belgium, Poland and the US.

It is noted that in July and August Greece had 4.7 million scheduled seats from abroad, with the increase compared to last year reaching 3.9 percent and 3.4 percent respectively.

Most planned airline seats are for Thessaloniki, Athens, Rhodes

INSETE’s Airdata tracker shows that the airport of Thessaloniki should be expecting the biggest increase in arrivals for September – by 19.9 percent compared to the same month last year. Planned airline seats are at 315,000, with tourists coming from all the main markets, such as Germany (up by 10.2 percent) and the UK (up by 8.9 percent).

Next is Athens International Airport with an expected arrivals increase by 15.4 percent and scheduled seats from over 45 countries reaching 1.2 million. Italy is the country with the most seats for Athens this month (120,000) followed by the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Cyprus and the US.

Rhodes, having recovered from the devastating fires of July, has 437,000 seats scheduled from abroad, recording an increase compared to September 2022 by 7.1 percent.

Kos is also seeing a rise (3.2 percent) in scheduled seats and is expecting some 235,000 foreign tourists.

Other Greek destinations seeing a rise in scheduled seats from abroad in September compared to the same month last year are Corfu (planned seats up by 8.5 percent and expecting more than 345,000 foreign tourists), Zakynthos (up by 4.7 percent), Kefalonia (3.1 percent), Heraklion (5.6 percent) and Chania (10.1 percent).

On the other hand, the largest decrease in scheduled air seats from abroad for September is recorded by Santorini (down by 21.5 percent) and Mykonos (down by 9.2 percent).

It should be noted that the European Organization for the Safety of Air Navigation (Eurocontrol) recently released data indicating strong flight activity to Greece in the fall.