Enlarge image
People visit the Acropolis in Athens in July: tourism boom in 2023 in Greece
Photo: Angelos Tzortzinis / AFP
More tourists than ever spent their vacation in Greece last year. The Greek central bank said that, according to preliminary information, more than 32.7 million people visited the country in 2023 - despite the sometimes very high temperatures and fires. In 2019, before the corona pandemic, 31.3 million tourists were counted.
Revenue also rose sharply by more than 20 percent to 20.5 billion euros. In 2019, sales in the tourism industry amounted to 18.15 billion euros.
Greece was hit by a heat wave last summer, with temperatures reaching up to 46 degrees Celsius in some areas. In July, tens of thousands of residents and tourists had to be brought to safety from fires on the popular holiday islands of Rhodes and Corfu. In August there was a fire in the Evros region on the border with Turkey. A total of 26 people died in the fires.
Vacationers in Greece came primarily from Germany (4.7 million) and France (1.8 million). According to the information, the number of tourists from EU countries rose by almost 16 percent to 19.6 million.
aeh/AFP