Greek tourism 2023: €20.6 billion turnover, more than 30 million tourists – final data

Travel income in Greece will increase by 2023 16.5 percent for some, year after year 20.6 billion euros compared to the previous year, the Bank of Greece recently reported based on its Border Survey statistics.

More specifically, according to final data for 2023 released by the Greek central bank, the development was driven by a 11.6 percent increase in income of EU27 residentswhich amounted to 11.169 billion euros or 54.2 percent of total travel revenues, and with a 18.3 percent increase in receipts from residents of other countries up to around 8.6 billion euros – Table 2 and Chart 2.

30.08 million tourists in 2023

The higher revenues reflect a 20.8 percent increase in incoming passenger flows the number of tourists visiting Greece in 2023 reached 30.08 million compared to more than 29.87 million in 2022.

According to the data, travelers are moving on Greek airports grew by 12.7 percent, as travelers flowed through border crossings on the road rose by 34.9 percent.

Travelers from within the EU27 charged 54.4 percent of the total number of travelers, while travelers out other countries charged 36.3 percent (the remaining 9.3 percent corresponds to data on cruise passenger flows other than that collected through the border survey).

In 2023, travelers from within the EU27 increased by 15.6 percent compared to 2022.

This development is attributed to the increase in the number of travelers from euro area countries by 11.3 percent to 12.9 million and in the number of travelers EU27 countries outside the euro area by 24.7 percent to 6.7 million.

More specifically, travelers out Germany rose by 9.5 percent to 4.7 million and travelers out Italy rose by 30.4 percent to 1.842 million. Travelers from France also rose by 4.2 percent to 1.8 million.

Finally, the number of travelers other countries grew by 20.8 percent to 13 million.

In particular the number of travelers from the United Kingdom rose by 2.4 percent to 4.5 million. Travelers from the United States increased by 29.2 percent to 1.4 million, while the number of travelers from Russia fell by 1.0 percent to 35.7 thousand – Table 4 and Chart 4.

Overnight stays

By 2023, The number of overnight stays by non-residents in Greece totaled 236,271.2 thousand, an increase of 7.3 percent compared to 220,213.1 thousand in 2022. This was driven by a 1.5 percent increase in the number of nights spent by EU27 residents, and by an increase of 10.8 percent in the number of nights spent by residents of other countries. The increase in the number of nights spent by residents of the EU27 reflects a 2.6 percent increase in the number of nights spent by residents of the euro area, while the number of nights spent by residents of EU27 countries outside the euro area increased by 2.1 percent decreased.

The number of overnight stays has not changed significantly compared to 2022 German Residentswhile it rose by 33.3 percent Italian residents and fell by 1.5 percent French residents. Looking abroad, the number of overnight stays is increasing British residents fell by 5.2 percent, while the number of overnight stays fell American residents rose by 23.1 percent. Finally the overnight stays are over Russian residents increased by 8.5 percent – Table 5 and Chart 5.

Cruises

Total cruise passenger receipts in 2023 increased by 84.1 percent year-on-year to 908.4 million euros. Of this amount, 61.0 million euros was already recorded in the Border Survey data, as it represents the receipts of the last port travelers who eventually left the country, while the remaining 847.4 million euros relates to additional receipts data recorded by the Cruise Survey – Tables 6 and 7.

Chart 6 shows a breakdown of cruise revenues by port. The Port of Piraeus ranks first with a 47.8 percent share of total receipts, followed by the Port of Corfu with 13.3 percent and the Port of Santorini with 8.5 percent respectively.

The year under review saw 5,152 cruise ship arrivals (2022: 4,598). The total number of nights spent on shore increased by 121.5 percent year-on-year to 9,421.9 thousand in 2023, with a positive impact on cruise revenues. The total number of cruise passengers also increased year-on-year 61.1 percent an estimated 3,484.1 thousand – Table 7.

Chart 7 shows a breakdown of cruise ship arrivals by port. The Port of Santorini ranks first with a 15.5% share of total cruise ship arrivals, followed by the Port of Piraeus with 14.8 percent and the Port of Mykonos with 14.5 percent respectively.

In 2023, the the total number of cruise passenger visits increased by 55.0 percent to 6,964.2 thousand, from 4,493.6 thousand in 2022 – Table 8. According to the Cruise Survey, 83.6 percent of all cruise passengers were transit visitors, with an average of 2.0 stops in Greek ports of call. The seven major cruise ship ports account for 90.8 percent of total cruise revenues and 82.7 percent of total cruise passenger visits – Chart 8.

Balance of travel offer per region

As suggested by the Border Survey, travel certificates in 2023 (excluding income from cruises). 19,746.3 million euros. Five regions accounted for the largest share (90.5 percent) of total revenue – Table 9 – namely: the Southern Aegean (EUR 5,340.8 million), Crete (EUR 5,196.3 million), Attica (EUR 3,786.9 million), the Ionian Islands (EUR 2,038.8 million) and Central Macedonia (1,514, 8 million euros). The remaining regions (the Peloponnese, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Epirus, Thessaly, Western Greece, Central Greece, the North Aegean and Western Macedonia) together accounted for EUR 1,868.6 million.

Visits to Greece (all 13 regions together) in 2023 this amounted to 36,135.6 thousand. It should be noted that the number of visits exceeds the number of inbound travelers estimated by the Border Survey (32,735.2 thousand), as travelers can visit more than one region during one trip.

Attica region: most visited in 2023
South Aegean region: largest share of total revenue, overnight stays

The five most visited regions, accounting for 83.9 percent of total visitsgoods: Attica (7,888.7 thousand visits), the South Aegean Sea (6,960.7 thousand), Central Macedonia (6,565.9 thousand), Crete (5,521.7 thousand) and the Ionian Islands (3,377.9 thousand). The remaining regions (Epirus, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Western Greece, Central Greece, the North Aegean and Western Macedonia) together accounted for 5,820.6 thousand visits.

The number of overnight stays in Greece accumulated during the reporting period 227,937.7 thousand. According to the breakdown into the 13 regions, five regions accounted for 87.7 percent of the total overnight staysnamely, the South Aegean Sea (50,643.4 thousand nights), Crete (45,837.2 thousand), Attica (44,347.7 thousand), the Central Macedonia (32,272.1 thousand) and the Ionian Islands (26,914.9 thousand). The other regions (Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, the Peloponnese, Epirus, Thessaly, West Greece, Central Greece, the North Aegean and West Macedonia) together accounted for 27,922.5 thousand overnight stays.

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