Greece Welcomes 33.4 Million Travelers in January-November 2023

International arrivals to Greece reached 33.4 million in the January-November period, contributing to the country’s complete post-Covid 2019 recovery, according to INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body.

More specifically, in the 11-month period under review, arrivals by air increased by 11.6 percent to 23.5 million and by 31.6 percent via road to 9.9 million.

Top performing airports in the January to November period were Athens International Airport, which handled a total of 6.7 million arrivals marking a 27.6 percent rise over the same period a year ago.

Next in line, Thessaloniki airport welcomed 2.2 million international arrivals, recording a 19.7 percent rise, followed by Heraklion airport in third place with 3.6 million arrivals and a 4.8 percent increase.

On the down side, Santorini’s airport recorded an 8.7 percent drop in arrivals to 743,000 and Mykonos airport a 5.2 percent decline in 11-month arrivals to 546,000.

Looking at road arrivals, incoming traffic in the January-November period increased at all of Greece’s border points compared to the same period in 2022.

Indicatively, 2.6 million arrivals were recorded at the Promachonas check point marking a 76.9 percent rise over 2022, 2.2 million through the Evzones check point up by 7.2 percent, and 896,000 through Kipi up by 45.6 percent.

Leading markets driving road arrivals in the 11 months to November were Bulgaria, with the number of arrivals up by 53.3 percent to 4.3 million, Turkey (+50.8 percent to 1.1 million), North Macedonia (+12.7 percent to 3.0 million), and Albania (+14.0 percent to 1.6 million).

According to Bank of Greece data for the January-October period, travel receipts rose by 14.7 percent over the same period in 2022 to 19.6 billion euros and up by 11.6 percent compared to the pre-Covid 2019 year.