Top 10 Tourist Nationalities at Thessaloniki’s Hotels in 2023

Thessaloniki, Greece.

America in 2023 was the top tourist-generating country to Thessaloniki’s hotels, Greece’s second largest city after Athens, according to data released recently by the Thessaloniki Hotels Association.

According to the data, Thessaloniki last year saw a total of 2,438,842 overnight stays by Greek and foreign visitors in the city’s hotels, a 14.75 percent increase compared to 2022 (2,125,433).

Greeks come in first overall

The Greeks traditionally continued to occupy the first place in the ranking of nationalities in general for 2023 with an increase of 11.21 percent compared to 2022. In absolute numbers, the overnight stays of Greeks amounted to 1,131,690 from 1,017,614 in in 2022.

With regard to the nationalities of foreign tourists that visited the Greek northern city during 2023, the Thessaloniki Hotels Association released the following Top 10 list:

1. United States – 141,557 overnight stays (33.33 percent increase from 2022)
2. Israel – 125,594 overnights (0.52 percent decrease)
3. Germany – 102,866 overnights (16.63 percent increase from 2023)
4. Cyprus – 98,129 overnights (24.19 percent increase)
5. Turkey – 94,212 overnights (115.99 percent increase)
6. Romania – 80,467 overnights (0.19 percent increase)
7. Bulgaria – 64,141 overnights (21.65 percent increase)
8. United Kingdom – 52,002 overnights (21.83 percent increase)
9. Italy – 51,569 overnights (17.59 percent increase)
10. Serbia and Montenegro – 49,173 overnights (2.60 percent increase)

Photo source: Makedonia Palace.

Moreover, regarding the nationalities that recorded the highest increases in overnight stays between 2023 and 2022, the data showed that travelers from Korea came first with a 373.8 percent increase, followed by tourists from China (up by 132.93 percent), Turkey (115.99 percent), Australia (92.07 percent) and Poland (57.52 percent). Travelers from Finland came in sixth on the list with a 52.02 percent rise in overight stays in Thessaloniki last year compared to 2022 and were followed by tourists from Canada (50.15 percent), India (47.44 percent), Czech Republic (39.76 percent) and the US (33.33 percent).

On the other hand, looking at the largest decreases recorded in the number of overnight stays between 2023 and 2022, the data showed the travelers from Russia in the top spot with a 66.86 percent drop, followed by tourists from Saudi Arabia, with overnights in the city down by 35.52 percent. Travelers from Iraq came in third with a 31.18 percent drop and were followed by tourists from New Zealand (down by 26.21 percent), Egypt (-23.6 percent), Syria (-22.41 percent), United Arab Emirates (-22.27 percent), Jordan (-13.04 percent), Belarus (-12.22 percent), Latvia (-10.51 percent) and Israel (-0.52 percent).

It is noted that the data refers to the availability of rooms to individuals and come from an indicative sample of hotel units in Thessaloniki.

Overall, the Thessaloniki Hotels Association said that the city’s tourism growth last year was strong in 2023 although Thessaloniki remained among the “most cheapest” options for hotel accommodation compared to other similar sized cities in Europe.

Citing data of research company GBR Consulting, the association said that Thessaloniki in 2023 came last in terms of both the average room rate (ARR) and the revenue per available room (RevPAR) compared to another 10 European cities (Antwerp, Birmingham, Cologne, Dusseldorf, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Budapest, Hamburg, Manchester, Salzburg).

However, compared to 2022, the city’s hotels did see an increase of 17.6 percent in RevPAR which amounted to 66.11 euros while the increase in the average room rate was around 9.1 percent.