January-August 2023 Arrivals to Greece Up by 18.4% to 22.6 Million

Tourism to Greece grew this year compared to 2022 with the number of arrivals in the first eight months of the year up by 18.4 percent, boosting travel receipts by 15.3 percent to 14.6 billion euros, found data released by the Bank of Greece.

More specifically, according to central bank data, the country’s tourism sector was supported in the January-August period primarily by German travelers up by 6.1 percent to 3,070.1 thousand, French tourists (+7.3 percent to 1,410.3 thousand), travelers from the UK (+0.3 percent to 3,016.0 thousand), and Americans up by 44.9 percent to 937.7 thousand. In the same period, the number of visitors from Russia dropped by 5.0 percent.

Overall in the eight-month period to August, Greece welcomed 22,649.1 thousand inbound travelers, up by 18.4 percent over January-August 2022 and 19,126.4 thousand.

Source: Bank of Greece.

Broken down, traveler flows through Greece’s airports increased by 12.4 percent and via road border-crossing points by 38.4 percent. Cruise passenger arrivals are excluded.

In the period under review, arrivals from EU countries rose by 15.9 percent year-on-year to 13,827.6 thousand and by 22.6 percent to 8,821.5 thousand from outside the EU.

United States: Key source market for Greece in August

In August, a peak month for the country’s tourism industry, arrivals grew by 10.4 percent to 6,478.8 thousand, up by 5.2 percent over the year-ago month.

Key source market for the month was the United States with travel flows up by 50.3 percent to 200.3 thousand. Greece’s other main source markets: Germany (-7.1 percent), France (-3.7 percent) and the UK (-5.8 percent) all marked declines in traveler arrivals.

Broken down, arrivals through Greek airports increased by 5.1 percent year-on-year and via road border-crossing points by 25.7 percent.

Traveler flows to Greece in the first seven months of the year to July increased by 21.9 percent to 16,170.4 thousand from 13,260.6 thousand in the same period a year ago, generating a total of 10.321.1 million euros.