2023 in running to beat out 2019 as best tourism season ever in Greece

The length of this year’s tourist season, with the optimistic scenario being brisk occupancy rates until even November, will determine if 2023 is a record-breaking year for the sector in Greece.

The previous record of 18.2 billion euros in travel remittances was reached in pre-pandemic 2019, with at least one buoyant estimate by National Bank analysts now pointing to a target of 21 billion euros this year.

Lower than expected occupancy rates in previous months were handily off-set by higher remittances (spending per person, per day) in 2023, with records broken this month and in the first half-year period.

According to Bank of Greece (BoG) figures, travel remittances in H1 2023 totaled 6.175 billion euros, compared to 4.98 billion euros in the corresponding period of 2022 and 5.41 billion in 2019.

According to a recent study by INSETE for 2022, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research NGO, visitors from the United States are the biggest “spenders”, followed by Swiss holiday-makers.

July’s massive and highly publicized wildfire in south-central Rhodes apparently did not dent the country’s image as a holiday magnet abroad, with high-profile visitors this year including Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Indian steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, NBA legend Magic Johnson and Hollywood star Demi Moore.