This year's increase in tourism demand in popular destinations such as Greece, Spain and Turkey occurred amid hyperinflationary conditions, with both airfares and hotel prices rising sharply.
The war in Israel is another factor ahead of the 2024 season to redirect bookings to Greece and Spain, who retain the advantage of safety as destinations to boost bookings until the start of the upcoming season.
Already, the messages are positive, but more is needed to draw safe estimates. For its part, Turkey will bet next year on the availability of tourist packages at lower prices. Egypt will resort to the same logic, which is already under pressure in its tourism due to its proximity to the events in Gaza.
In the current period, with the announcement of the tourism performance of the destinations, the rise achieved during this year is revealed. Greece is expected to close the year with travel receipts close to 20 billion euros, surpassing by far the last record of 18.2 billion euros achieved in the pre-pandemic year of 2019.
Spain leads the Mediterranean tourism race.
According to the country's tourism analysts, Spain is expected to surpass 2019's number of foreign tourists in its main tourist destinations this year.
As stated in a document of the Greek Embassy in Madrid, conservative industry estimates predict that this year will probably end with a total number of just over 260 million tourists through the airports of the AENA network - one of the leading international Spanish state-owned airport infrastructure management groups - of which approximately 84 million foreign and 176 million Spanish tourists.
At the same time, some major travel agencies in the country are warning of a possible "war" of low prices that could be caused by low-cost Mediterranean destinations, namely Turkey, Morocco or Tunisia.
According to estimates by major Spanish travel agencies, whether or not 2019 inbound tourism levels are exceeded will largely depend on the uninterrupted flow of tourist arrivals beyond 2023 to the Canary Islands, which gather a very significant portion of inbound tourism flows between October and December of each year.
On the other hand, however, the Spanish tourism industry estimates that the general increase in the prices of tourist products tends to "paralyse" the demand in the groups of tourists with a lower income level, mainly in Germany and the United Kingdom, which are traditional countries of origin for tourists to Spain, pointing out, however, that this phenomenon does not seem to affect the flows to Spain at the moment.
Indicatively, according to data from the National Statistics Institute in Spain, during the first ten months of 2023, the total expenditure of international tourists increased by 24% compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, exceeding 94.9 billion euros. If this performance is compared to 2019 figures, before the pandemic, tourist spending appears to be 16% higher.
The total expenditure of international tourists visiting Spain in October exceeded 10.3 billion euros by 23.9%, higher than in October 2022. The average daily expenditure increased by 10.6% to 185 euros. The average expenditure per tourist amounted to 1,260 euros, with an annual increase of 8.8%.
Besides, in the ten months of 2023, the number of tourists who visited Spain increased by 18.2%, exceeding 74.7 million. In the same period of 2022, they reached 63.2 million. The performance of 2023 is 0.2% higher than the number of tourists in the first ten months of 2019. In October, Spain was visited by 8.2 million international tourists, 13.9% more than in the same month of 2022.
This performance also exceeds, by 7.8%, that of the same month in 2019. The United Kingdom is a key market with more than 1.7 million tourists, representing 20.9% of the total and an increase of 12.2% compared to October 2022. Germany and France followed with 1.1 million and almost 1 million tourists respectively.
Among the remaining countries of residence, it is worth mentioning the annual increase of tourists from the USA (+25.7%), the Netherlands (+19.6%) and Ireland (+15.1%).
Turkey's tourism is also at high levels.
In Turkey, foreign tourist arrivals in the 10th month increased by 11.6%, reaching 44.2 million from 39.6 million in the same period of 2022, according to data from the neighbouring country's Ministry of Culture and Tourism. The first market for Turkey was Russia, with 5.84 million arrivals.
Germany followed with 5.71 million arrivals, the United Kingdom with 3.6 million, Bulgaria with 2.42 million, and Iran with 2.09 million. Arrivals from Greece to Turkey also show a significant recovery, reaching 563,174 in the 10th month from 468,408 in the same period of 2022. For October alone, foreign tourist arrivals increased by 3.8%, reaching 5 million from 4.8 million in the same month of 2022.
The first market for October was Germany, with 860,635 arrivals. Russia followed this with 672,198 arrivals, the United Kingdom with 441,449 arrivals, Bulgaria with 266,052 arrivals and Iran with 220,574 arrivals.
According to data recently released by Turkey's Ministry of Culture and Tourism, it should be noted that more than 7,500 hotels with 1,044,189 beds have received endorsements and certificates of sustainable tourism within the framework of Turkey's National Sustainable Tourism Program.
Turkey is one of the few countries in the world that has adopted a 'compulsory' approach to sustainable tourism, with accommodation certification being mandatory by law. Looking at the progress of the National Sustainable Tourism Program in Turkey's four largest tourist areas, it is found that 1,144 accommodations have been inspected and certified in Antalya, 966 in Istanbul, 639 in Mugla and 488 in Izmir.
Cyprus won the promotion bet.
For the period January – October, tourist arrivals in Cyprus they amounted to 3.56 million compared to 2.94 million in the corresponding period of 2022, marking an increase of 21.1%, according to data from the country's Statistical Service.
Tourist arrivals in October totalled 426,272 compared to 400,628 in October 2022, an increase of 6.4%. Arrivals from the United Kingdom were the primary source of tourism for October, accounting for 36.2% (154,373) of total arrivals, arrivals from Germany at 7.1% (30,178) and arrivals from Poland at 6. at 7% (28,649).
The purpose of travel in October was vacation for 82.5% of tourists, visiting friends or relatives for 10.9% and business for 6.4%.
Cypriot residents' trips abroad in October totalled 131,327 compared to 119,466 in October 2022, an increase of 9.9%. The main countries from which Cypriots returned in October were Greece with 34.1% (44,795), the United Kingdom with 8.2% (10,751) and Italy with 6.2% (8,176).
Cypriot residents' travel purpose in October was mainly holidays, with a percentage of 65.1%, while professional reasons accounted for 30%, studies for 2.2% and other reasons for 2.8%.
Based on the latest results of the Statistical Service's Traveler Survey, tourism revenue for January – September is estimated at €2.46 billion compared to €1.96 billion in the corresponding 2022, an increase of 25%.
Tourism receipts in September amounted to 428.4 million euros compared to 348.3 million euros in the corresponding month last year, an increase of 23%. The per capita expenditure of tourists in September amounted to 879.13 euros compared to 842.49 euros in the same month of 2022, showing an increase of 4.3%.
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