Jump in tourist arrivals from Turkey, rise in spending from Germans in 2023
The average money spend in Greece per trip by tourists originating from Germany and Romania increased, and the number of visitors from Turkey jumped in 2023, according to the processing of credit card transaction data carried out by the electronic payment company Visa.
According to the data analysis, most visitors in 2023 came to Greece from the United Kingdom, accounting for 13% of the total, while the country of origin with the most significant increase was Turkey, which saw a 163% jump. The United States followed in second place, registering a 23% increase in one year. Compared to 2019, visitors from the US rose by 56%.
Using 2019 as a benchmark, Visa found that, although the UK is consistently one of the top markets from which Greece attracts travelers, the number of arrivals from countries with fewer visitors, such as the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania and Ireland, has grown significantly.
For some countries such as Switzerland, the increase in spending is proportional to that of the number of visitors, but in other cases, such as tourists from Romania and Germany, spending is higher than the rise in their numbers, which shows that the average spending per visitor has increased.
Visitors who stay longer, that is, those who made transactions with foreign cards in Greece for more than 30 days, made 15% of the total expenditure in the country. Of these, 17% were from the US, followed by Cyprus with 14% and the United Kingdom with 12%. Dining and nightlife were the categories with the highest expenditure in Greece in 2023. Restaurants, bars and nightclubs collected 22%, hotels and accommodation 19%, and supermarkets 7%.
Among the islands, Santorini tops the card spending list with 57%, followed by Rhodes and Chania. Athens accounted for one fifth of the total expenditure in the country. In general, all Greek destinations showed an increase in spending, except for Mykonos.
