Greece Welcomes Record Arrivals in January-April 2024

The number of international arrivals to Greece broke a new record in the January-April period up by an additional 420,000, found data released by INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research body.

More specifically, the four-month period to April this year saw 335,000 more arrivals by air and an additional 85,000 by road reaching in total 4.9 million: 3.1 million by air – up by 12.3 percent over the same period in 2023 – and 1.8 million by road – up by 5.1 percent over 2023.

The country’s largest airport, “Eleftherios Venizelos” in Athens, handled a total of 1.8 million international arrivals marking a 16.5 percent increase over the year-ago period.

Thessaloniki’s airport “Makedonia” followed with 571,000 arrivals up by 7.9 percent, and in third spot, Heraklion Airport on Crete with 231,000 arrivals up by 5.1 percent.

On the down side, the airports of Kefalonia, Santorini, and Mykonos marked declines in the given period by 21.6 percent, 6.6 percent, and 14.7 percent, respectively.

Santorini Airport. Photo © GTP

Moreover, according to INSETE, travel receipts in the first three months of the year marked a 28.2 percent rise over the same period in 2023 to 942 million euros driven by arrivals from the EU which were up by 48.2 percent (470 million euros), and from non-EU countries up by 13.1 percent to 451 million euros.

Key source markets in the period under review were Germany (+43.8 percent), the UK (+4.8 percent), and the US (+32.4 percent).

In April, Greece and Cyprus ranked first in terms of hotel satisfaction. Greece held 87 percent on the general satisfaction index (GRI), followed by Turkey and Spain in second place (85 percent), and Italy (84 percent).