The trends in travel behavior, the monitoring of economic developments and the ranking of Greece in the preferences of travelers in 13 countries-markets of Greek tourism, from which in 2022 came 76.5% of all inbound tourism receipts, are the subject of INSETE’s new study “Market Outlook: Travel behavior and economic conditions in the main inbound tourism markets” prepared in June 2023.

Travel behavior in major markets

According to GWI’s data analysis, there is an increased interest among consumers from all markets examined in travel, whether domestic or international, with at least half saying they are interested in traveling.

Consumers from the markets of Switzerland (62%), Italy (61%), Austria (59%), Belgium (57%), Sweden (56%), Romania (53%) expressed a higher interest in traveling ), Poland (52%), the United Kingdom (52%), Germany (51%) and Israel (51%).

– The criteria for choosing a holiday destination

The main factors influencing consumer travel decisions are value for money and weather.

Next are relaxation, cultural experience, special prices/offers, life experience, ease of travel (eg direct flights), distance of travel, quality facilities for children/family, ability to visit friends/relatives, recommendation from friends/family, outdoor adventure activities, online reviews and familiarity with the destination.

The remaining factors do not exceed 10% in almost all individual markets.

– Beach/resort vacations are the most popular

In terms of the type of vacation that surveyed consumers said they enjoy most, beach/resort vacations are the most popular (from 53% to 67% depending on the country).

Followed by less than 50% are road trip, staycation, action/adventure vacation, spa/getaway vacation, theme park vacation, cruise and winter sports.

In the individual markets by product, we observe that the highest percentages of preference for beach/resort are found in the markets of Italy (67%), Sweden (67%), Switzerland (66%), Austria (64%), Germany ( 64%), the UK (64%), the US (62%), Romania (62%) and Israel (61%).

At the same time, a high preference for road travel is observed in the markets of the USA (53%), Romania (48%), Switzerland (42%), the Netherlands (42%) and Poland (41%).

– The most popular platforms

When asked which website/app they have recently visited or used, the dominant choice is Booking (from 24% to 36% in European markets), followed by Trivago (9% – 17%), TripAdvisor (7% – 25 %), Airbnb (7% – 20%) and to a lesser extent Expedia, Skyscanner and Hotels.com.

Notable is the preference compared to other purchases by consumers from France to Airbnb (20%), from the USA to Expedia (17% vs. 14% Booking and 15% AirBnB), from Italy to TripAdvisor (25%) and from Sweden to Hotels.com (18%).

Greece in the top-10 outbound tourism destinations & in the top-5 Mediterranean destinations in the main markets

Greece is among the top-10 outbound tourism destinations in the markets under review with the exception of the US market, based on UNWTO data for the year 2021 (latest data available).

Particularly, held first place in the Cyprus market, second place in the UK market and third place in the markets of France, Israel and Serbia.

At the same time, Greece ranks high in preferences in the other markets as well: fourth (4th) in the markets of Romania, Italy and Poland, fifth (5th) in Austria, sixth (6th) in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and eighth ( 8th) in the Netherlands and Sweden.

The picture is significantly different with regard to Mediterranean destinations, with Greece in all markets in the top-5 of the main destinations.

Compared to 2019, the last pre-pandemic year, Greece rose one place as a destination in the preferences of travelers from Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland and Sweden, two places in the preferences of travelers from Belgium, three places in the preferences of travelers from the US and Israel, four places in the preferences of travelers from the United Kingdom and Poland, and five places in the preferences of travelers from France.

A drop of two places was recorded in the preferences of travelers from Serbia and three places in the preferences of travelers from Romania.