Greece’s Cruise Tourism Revenues Up by 84.1% in 2023

Cruise passengers to Greece last year generated 908.4 million euros in travel receipts marking an 84.1 percent rise over 2022, found data released this week by the Bank of Greece (BoG).

More specifically, according to the central bank’s final data for 2023 collected from 16 Greek ports which account for 83.7 percent of all cruise ship arrivals to the country, of the total receipts, 61.0 million euros concerned last port travelers (those leaving the country), and 847.4 million euros additional receipts.

In terms of port activity, Piraeus led the way last year accounting for 47.8 percent in total cruise-related receipts, followed by the ports of Corfu (13.3 percent) and Santorini (8.5 percent). Seven key cruise ship ports in Greece accounted for 90.8 percent of total cruise receipts and 82.7 percent of total cruise passenger visits in 2023.

Source: Bank of Greece

Overall in 2023, 5,152 cruise ship arrivals were recorded up from 4,598 in 2022. Total overnight stays ashore increased by 121.5 percent year-on-year to 9,421.9 thousand in 2023, driving cruise receipts up. The total number of cruise passengers increased by 61.1 percent year on year to an estimated 3,484.1 thousand, found the report.

Ports welcoming the largest number of cruise ship arrivals were those of Santorini with a share of 15.5 percent of all arrivals, followed by Piraeus (14.8 percent), and Mykonos (14.5 percent).

The total number of cruise passenger visits increased by 55.0 percent to 6,964.2 thousand in 2023 up from 4,493.6 thousand in 2022. Of the total, 83.6 percent were transit visitors with an average of 2.0 stopovers at Greek ports of call.

According to Hellenic Ports Association (ELIME) tentative data presented in March, Greece broke all cruise records in 2023 with 49 ports welcoming 5,230 cruise ship arrivals and 7,003,150 passengers marking a 9.41 percent and 51.26 percent rise, respectively, over 2022.

Based on ELIME data, the port of Piraeus handled 1,500,000 passengers, followed by Santorini (1,298,968), Mykonos (1,192,822), Corfu, Rhodes, Katakolo, and Heraklion.