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Greek tourism is booming already this year and it’s only March. An increase in visitors to a variety of Greek islands has seen Greece getting a head start on tourism in 2023.
The news from a Business Trends study by the National Bank of Greece is positive, and they expect to see more tourists flocking to Greece after the steady post covid tourism increase of 2022. Many Greeks hotels have seen their autumn 2022 sales rise by 24%, an increase on the pre-covid data of 2019.
The study reported that Greek islands have found ways of boosting their tourism by welcoming tourists “off-season” which has increased sales by 13%, in comparison to 2019. Two areas in Greece pushing this strategy were Crete and the South Aegean islands.
The study also saw the number of victors from France, Germany, the UK, and the USA rise by around 115 with UK visitors making a total of 43% in comparison to 2019.
It wasn’t all good news though as road arrival figures were down by 5% in comparison to the 2019 figures.
On the whole, though the news is positive. Greece is currently a highly sought-after holiday destination. It’s the first European destination of choice by 5.8 of Europeans and early bookings are 70% higher in comparison to last year. Schedule air seats for the first week of this month were also estimated to be 11% higher.
The Greek Ministry of Tourism are hopeful that this will be a good year for Greek tourism and the National Bank of Greece is expecting it to be a good year for tourism, with a likely upwards trend in visitors that continues for the rest of 2023.
Source: NBG and Greek Ministry
