Bulgarian Tourists Drive Up Greece’s Road Tourism Arrivals in Q1  

International arrivals to Greece via road are back on track, marking a 12 percent increase or an additional 133,000 arrivals in the first three months of the year to 1.2 million up from 1.1 million in 2023, according to data released this week by INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE).

Leading source markets in the first quarter of the year (Q1) were Bulgaria accounting for 382,823 inbound travelers, Albania (331,708), and Northern Macedonia (315,038). Arrivals from neighboring Turkey also rose by 47.3 percent to 208,814.

According to INSETE data, main border entry points in Greece reported increases in the January-March period with the Evzones check point handling 233,000 arrivals, up by 2.9 percent over the same quarter in 2023, Kipi welcoming 166,000, Promachonas with 145,000, Kakavia with 141,000.

Declines were reported at the stations of Niki (-22.6 percent), Krystallopigi (-9.9 percent), Dorianis (-8.9 percent) and Mertzanis (-21.4 percent).

Broken down by month: road arrivals in January were up by 11.3 percent to 460,000 thousand, in February by 14.5 percent to 359,000 thousand, and in March up by +10.8 percent to 420,000.

Overall, international arrivals to Greece grew by 18.7 percent in Q1 with airports handling a total of 1.6 million international arrivals in the January-March period up from 253,000 a year earlier.