Greece Welcomes Almost 7 Million Tourists in January-May

Greece welcomed a total of 6,943.9 thousand (over 6.9 million) international travelers during January-May, up by 20.6 percent compared to 5,759.5 thousand (some 5.76 million) in the same period a year ago, the Bank of Greece (BoG) said on Tuesday.

According to data released by Greece’s central bank data, traveler flows through Greece’s airports during the first five months of the year grew by 21.5 percent and by 19.9 percent through road border-crossing points. These rises boosted tourism-related revenues by 16.2 percent to 3,806.3 million euros, relative to the same period of 2023.

Arrivals from the EU rose by 25.6 percent year‑on‑year to 4,018.3 thousand, while travelers from other countries increased by 14.3 percent to 2,925.6 ​thousand.

Source: Bank of Greece

Referring to source markets, BoG’s data showed that the number of travelers from Germany rose by 22.2 percent to 1,064.4 thousand, as did the number of visitors from France, by 17.0 percent to 469.4 thousand. Tourist flows from Italy also grew, by 68.3 percent to 353.2 thousand.

Turning to other countries, the number of travellers from the United Kingdom increased by 4.1 percent to 665.8 thousand, while visitors from the United States increased by 23.0 percent to 392.5​ thousand. The number of travelers from Russia fell by 65.9 percent to 2.6 thousand.

May

In May alone, the number of inbound travelers rose by 21.3 percent year-on-year to 3,047.8​ thousand. Specifically, tourist flows through Greek airports increased by 19.6 percent relative to May 2023 and traveler flows through road border-crossing points were up by 34.7 percent.

Travel receipts in May 2024 rose by 6.8 percent to 1,934.8 million euros from 1,811,3 million euros during the same month in 2023.

According to BoG, this overall increase is due to higher traveler flows from both the EU27 (up by 23.8 percent) and other countries (up by 17.5 percent).

During May, the number of travelers from Germany rose by 18.0 percent to 605.4​ thousand and visitors from France increased by 25.6 percent to 256.7 ​thousand. Traveler flows from Italy also increased, by 85.5 percent to 130.5 thousand. Regarding other countries, travelers from the United Kingdom increased by 24.1 percent to 457.6 thousand, whereas travellers from the United States dropped by 18.8 percent to 125.0 ​thousand. The number of travelers from Russia fell by 52.3 percent to 1.4 thousand.