Foreign tourists are taking shorter trips to Greece but are spending more per day during their stay, with length of stay emerging as the key factor influencing average per-capita expenditure in the country.

In summary, based on official data from the Bank of Greece, between 2015 and 2024 the Average Expenditure per Overnight Stay increased by 20.6%, reaching €89.1 in 2024, up from €73.9 in 2015. However, the Average Per-Capita Expenditure of foreign visitors recorded a slight decline of 1.2% over the same period, falling by €6.9—from €579.6 in 2015 to €572.8 in 2024.
This decrease is entirely due to the reduction in the Average Length of Stay, which fell by 1.4 nights, from 7.8 nights in 2015 to 6.4 nights in 2024.

It is noted that the above amounts refer only to the portion of tourist spending that takes place within Greece and do not include commissions paid to intermediary companies based abroad, nor transportation tickets, even if the airline or ferry company is headquartered in Greece. Therefore, average per-capita expenditure does not reflect the total cost of travel per visitor.

The data come from the latest study by the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE) titled “Average Per-Capita Expenditure of Incoming Tourists to Greece, 2015–2024.” The study examines spending by incoming tourists (excluding cruise passengers), based on the Bank of Greece Border Survey.

The decade covered by the study is divided into three distinct periods:

• Pre-pandemic (2015–2019),
• Acute phase of the pandemic (2020–2021), and
• Post-pandemic (2022–2024).

As the study notes, “the increase in tourists’ daily expenditure is accompanied by a reduction in the duration of their trips, which may indicate either that higher daily holiday costs lead to shorter stays (thus limiting total expenditure), or that short-duration holidays, such as city breaks, are gaining market share over longer leisure holidays, which typically involve higher total spending due to their longer duration.”