Five regions of the Greece absorb 80% to 90% of the tourists, while the Germans and the British are at the top 3 of the main contributors to the country’s tourist income distributed throughout Greece.
This data comes from the latest SETE study titled “Who goes Where. How long does they stay? How much do they spend?” which analyzes incoming tourism by Region and per tourist market.
Based on data from the Bank of Greece as compiled during the previous year, the regions with the largest flows of incoming travel traffic are the South Aegean, Crete, Central Macedonia, Attica and the Ionian Islands. Due to the different markets that each region receives and the different visitor profile, although Central Macedonia has the highest number of visits, the South Aegean and Crete have a higher number of overnight stays. Attica has a higher incomes figures as well, while the Ionian Islands are a bit behind compared to Central Macedonia. Also, these five regions receive 82% of visits (28.4 million across the country), 85% of overnight stays and 88% of the revenue (12.7 billion euros).
From the analysis of the market, the presence of the German and British in almost all regions is impressive, especially in terms of overnight stays and revenue, as there is not even a single region that at least one of the two countries are not among the top three of the region. In fact, in eight regions these two countries of origin are among the top 3.
Attica, is quite different from the other regions as the top 3 countries of origin are the UK, the USA and Cyprus.
It is also worth noting that 39.4% of visits, 47.8% of overnight stays and 50.3% of receipts are from Germany, United Kingdom, France, USA and Italy.
Of particular interest is the image shown by the analysis of key performance indicators: Cost Per Visit, Cost per Night and Average Length of Stay. Regions that primarily receive “sun and sea” tourism, i.e. the South Aegean, Crete and the Ionian Islands, have the highest prices in all three categories. Indeed, in all three regions, the Expenditure per Visit rate ranges from 600 Euros and above, compared with 449 Euros across the country. On the contrary, in the regions bordering the Balkan countries, the lowest values are observed in all three indices. Also, the region of Attica has a relatively low Spending per Visit, despite the fact that Expenditure Per Night is rather high due to the short stay of the visitors.
Given the increase in the tourist flow from the Balkan countries to the northern regions bordering them and the increase of the city break to Athens, it is reasonable to see a decrease in the Expenditure per Visit and the Average Capital Expenditure.
