September a Strong Month for Greece’s Tourism Sector

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September was a good month for the Greek tourism sector with the country’s hotels remaining in the lead in terms of traveler satisfaction, according to SETE Intelligence (INSETE), the research department of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).

More specifically, Greek hotels got an overall score of 86 percent on the Global Review Index (GRI), followed in second place by Italy, Spain and Cyprus (84 percent), Turkey (82 percent), and France (77 percent).

The number of arrivals in September, up by 8.4 percent over the same month in 2022 and by 11.9 percent compared to pre-Covid 2019, reflect a longer tourism season. A total of 3.4 million people visited the country in September.

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Arrivals by road were also stronger in September marking a 34.7 percent rise over the same month in 2022 to 1.3 million but still down on 2019 by 20.4 percent.

In the nine-month period to September, Greece welcomed 20.9 million international arrivals by air surpassing 2022 levels by 11.6 percent and pre-pandemic figures by 11 percent.

Key destinations attracting international tourist flows in the nine months included Crete with 4.5 million arrivals up by 6.0 percent, the Dodecanese islands (3.6 million, up by 3.5 percent), and the Ionian islands (3.4 million up by 7.6 percent).

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International traffic to the Cyclades, according to INSETE data, dropped in the nine-month period by 7.6 percent over the same period in 2022 to 1.2 million and by 3 percent to 186,000 in the Peloponnese.

Overall, in the January-September period, a total of 9.0 million people  arrived via road, up by 35.7 percent over the year-ago period but still down by 12.3 percent compared to 2019.

Travelers to Greece in the nine-month period generated 14.663 million euros up by 15.3 percent over the same months in 2022 and by 10.9 percent over 2019.