Greece Welcomes 2 Million Travelers in October, Sees Off-season Demand Grow

Greece welcomed 2 million travelers in October breaking all records for the month and reflecting a growing off-season tourist demand, found data released by INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body.

In October, arrivals to Greece grew by 11 percent over the same month in 2022, but were down by 38.5 percent over pre-Covid 2019.

In the same month, Greece was also first in terms of hotel satisfaction according to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Greece scored 86 percent on the GRI, followed in second place by Cyprus (85 percent), and Italy and Spain (84 percent).

Road arrivals for the month rose by 2.0 percent over 2022 but were still down by 38.5 percent over 2019.

In the 10-month period to October, Greek airports handled a total of 23 million arrivals, up by 11.5 percent over the same period in 2022 and by 12 percent over 2019.

The top destinations included Athens with 6.3 million arrivals in the 10-month period, up by 28.4 percent, and Thessaloniki marking a 20.3 percent rise in arrivals to 2.1 million. Declines were marked only in the Peloponnese down by 3.2 percent and the Cyclades down by 7.2 percent.

In the January-October period, arrivals by road increased by 33.1 percent to 9.5 million compared to 7.2 million in 2022 but were down by 14.4 percent over 2019.

Tourism-related revenues in the first nine months of the year rose by 15.2 percent compared to the nine-month period in 2022 to 17.9 billion euros and up by 11.3 percent over the same period in 2019.