International arrivals increased by almost 10% in the seven months to 2024.
Based on official data from the country’s airports and border stations collected by the Institute of the Hellenic Tourism Business Association (INSEETE), for the period January-July 2024, total international air and road arrivals reached 20.7 million, having recorded an overall increase of almost 10% from 18.82 million in the first seven months of 2023.
Of these, 14.4 million accounted for international arrivals by air and another 6.3 million were arrivals with travellers coming to the country by road.
The road tourism numbers in particular seem to be performing better this year, given that road tourism had not recovered after the pandemic.
In more detail, in January-July 2024, 14.4 million international air arrivals were recorded, surpassing the January-July 2023 level, when the same figure was 13.3 million, showing an increase of 8.2% or an additional 1.1 million arrivals.
The vast majority of airports across Greece recorded an increase, but the two premium and more “expensive” destinations of the Aegean Sea saw a decline: the airports of Mykonos (-4.8) and Santorini (-0.7%) recorded a decrease in the seven-month period, with international arrivals at 282,000 and 408,000 respectively.
Hence, the Cyclades is the geographical unit of the country with a decrease and 689 thousand international air arrivals, showing a 2.4% decrease.
Otherwise, the remaining geographical areas recorded an increase.
Specifically, in the geographical area of Crete, international air arrivals reached 2.9 million (+6.7%), at the airports of the Dodecanese, they amounted to 2.4 million (+11.4%), while in the Ionian Islands there was an increase of 5.3%, with a total of 2.1 million international air arrivals. In the Peloponnese, arrivals reached 122,000 (+12%).
At the country’s largest airport, “Eleftherios Venizelos,” 4.5 million international air arrivals were recorded, showing an increase of 12.5% (+500,000 passengers) compared to the same period in 2023. This was followed by Thessaloniki airport, where 1.4 million international air arrivals were recorded, presenting an increase of +3.1%, while Heraklion airport recorded 2 million international arrivals (+6.5%).
Also in Crete, at Chania airport, there were 848,000 international arrivals (+7.4%), while the largest increase was noted at Rhodes airport with 1.6 million international arrivals, a rise of +15.4% compared to the corresponding seven-month period last year.
In the Ionian Islands, at Corfu airport, international air arrivals amounted to 1.1 million (+6.5%), while in Zakynthos, there were 576,000 with an increase of +5.9%, and in Kefalonia, the recorded increase was +2% with a total of 208,000 arrivals.
During the period from January to July 2024, an additional 5.4 million domestic air arrivals were recorded, compared to 4.9 million for the same period in 2023, showing an increase of 7.8%.
Road Arrivals
This year, road tourism is seeing better days, with data collected by INSETE showing that, for the period January-July 2024, 6.3 million international road arrivals were recorded, compared to 5.5 million in the January-July 2023 period, showing an increase of 13.8% or an additional 762,000 road arrivals.
The data by country is also interesting, and according to these, road arrivals from Albania decreased by 16,000 (-1.7%) to 904,000 in the seven-month period. In contrast, arrivals from Bulgaria increased by +383,000 (+16.4%) with a total of 2.7 million. Similarly, arrivals from Turkey increased by 206,000 (+38.4%), with total road arrivals reaching 742,000. Finally, arrivals from North Macedonia increased by +189,000 (+11.0%), reaching a total of 1.9 million.
