Greek tourism is set to achieve a new milestone in 2023, with a record number of foreign visitors and increased receipts compared to the previous benchmark year of 2019.
According to data from the Bank of Greece, inbound travel traffic from January to October 2023 experienced a significant increase of 17% compared to the same period in the previous year. This surge brought the total number of visitors in that 10-month period to 30.933 million, just 415,000 visitors short of the total recorded in 2019. Based on this growth rate, it is anticipated that the number of foreign visitors in 2023 will either meet or even surpass 32 million, making it a new reference year for the sector.
In addition to the increase in foreign visitors, travel receipts have also witnessed substantial growth in 2023. The data from the Bank of Greece reveals that travel receipts in the first 10 months of the year amounted to 19.612 billion euros, surpassing the total receipts for the entire year of 2019 by 1.4 billion euros. The strong growth in receipts, which have been expanding at a double-digit rate compared to 2019, is expected to continue. Taking into account the average receipts in November and December of 2019, which stood at around 600 million euros, it is estimated that the receipts from foreign visitors for the whole of 2023 will reach approximately 20.2-20.3 billion euros.
It is worth noting that these figures do not factor in cruise arrivals beyond those recorded by the Border Survey. The Border Survey only includes individuals entering the country to commence their cruise, and therefore does not capture all cruise arrivals. Despite this, the data highlights the remarkable growth of Greek tourism in 2023, with a surge in both visitor numbers and receipts, surpassing the previous record figures of 2019.
