Visitors to Palace of Knossosexceed 5 thousand every day since the very first days of August. The traffic in the area is at its peak, with Palace guard Nikos Papadakis to note speaking to APE-MPE, that during August, the number of visitors may exceed 200 thousand.

“We see it every day since the very first days of August, that there is a big increase in the total number of visitors. The tickets that are sold exceed five thousand and we estimate that as we get closer to the middle of August, this number can exceed six thousand.”

According to the data, in 2023 the total number of visitors to Knossos reached 943,869. Most popular month was August with visitors reaching 170,958 followed by July with 152,989 visitors, September with 135,409 visitors and June and May with 123,300 and 112,199 visitors.

This year, however, given that cumulatively more visitors are recorded each month, according to Mr. Papadakis, it is not excluded that the number of visitors will exceed one million, given the image that is also captured by the visitors who arrive in Heraklion by cruise ships and by during their short stay on the island, the places they consistently choose to visit are Knossos and the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion.

“If we exclude June, which had a decrease compared to last year, due, as I believe, to the European Football Championship 2024 which kept a lot of people in Germany where the event took place, all the other months recorded an increase. It is a better year for traffic and I think it is possible to exceed one million in tickets. If it weren’t for the European Football Championship and the Olympiad, this number might have been much higher,” said Mr. Papadakis, who, despite the number of visitors, pointed out that there are no long waits and that people patiently await their turn to enter the space.

“The truth is that the wait is not long, despite the queues we often see forming,” said Nikos Papadakis.

However, as regards specifically the visitation to the Archaeological Site of Knossos in 2024, it reached 4,974 visitors in January, 8,220 visitors in February, 18,402 people visited the site in March, 90,178 in April, 119,894 in May, 119,894 in June. .001 and in July 165,168 visitors. Total up to the last day of July, 525,837 people.

“Knossos is the most popular choice for visitors who come to our place for holidays. All these people who come to Knossos leave excited, while I think it is needless to say that a large part of visitors come and return to Crete for vacations and choose to see Knossos again and again” added chief guard of Knossos Nikos Papadakis.