With planes, ships and cars, foreign visitors visited Greece in 2023, creating an unprecedented image in terms of arrivals at airports mainly but also at the country’s border stations, which may lag behind in relation to 2019 but in comparison with 2022 they moved with an increase of 31.6%.

Given that we are talking about a record year, as both the vice-president of XEE Christina Tetradis and the president of ITEP Konstantina Svinou reiterated in APE-MPE, who speaks of 32 million arrivals in addition to cruise visitors, the recent figures of Insete are of interest for 2023. These, among others, reflect an additional 2.4 million arrivals in the eleventh month of 2023 compared to last year, with July 2023 being the most productive month of the year with 4.4 million arrivals.

A total of 2.4 million more International Air Arrivals than last year

In the January-November period of 2023, according to the latest Insete research, 23.5 million international air arrivals were recorded, surpassing the levels of January-November 2022, showing an increase of 11.6%. In absolute numbers this translates into an additional 2.4 million arrivals compared to last year. Compared to the eleventh month of 2019, the increase in international air arrivals is recorded at 11.8%.

The traffic at the airports of Greece

In the period January-November 2023, Athens International Airport rightly starred as 6.7 million international air arrivals were recorded, showing an increase of 27.6%. It was followed by Thessaloniki airport where 2.2 million international air arrivals were recorded, showing an increase of 19.7%.

At the same time, an increase of 4.8% was recorded at Heraklion airport, while international air arrivals reached 3.6 million and at Chania airport, arrivals reached 1.4 million, showing an increase of 8.6%. At Rhodes airport, 2.6 million international air arrivals were recorded, showing an increase of 3.1%, at Kos airport, 1.3 million international arrivals were recorded, showing an increase of 5.4%, while at Karpathos airport, 90 thousand international arrivals were recorded, showing also a 2.7% increase.

At Mykonos airport, 546 thousand international air arrivals were recorded, showing a decrease of 5.2%, and at Santorini airport, 743 thousand international arrivals were recorded, showing a decrease of 8.7%. At Corfu airport international air arrivals were 1.8 million showing an increase of 8.4% and at Zakynthos airport international air arrivals were 991 thousand showing an increase of 9.8%.

393,000 international air arrivals were recorded at Aktion airport, showing an increase of 5.5%, while at Kefalonia airport, the increase was 2.8% as 363,000 international air arrivals were recorded.

In the meantime, an increase of 8.2% was recorded at Skiathos airport with air arrivals reaching 239 thousand. A similar picture at the airports of Samos and Kavala with the increase amounting to 5.9% and 21.8% respectively as 132 thousand and 122 thousand international air arrivals were recorded.

At the airport of Kalamata there was a decrease of 15.2% while 136 thousand international air arrivals were recorded. On the contrary, at Araxos airport, international air arrivals reached 67 thousand, showing an increase of 36.3%. Finally, at the airport of Mytilini, international air arrivals reached 54 thousand, showing an increase of 15.6%.

In the period January-November 2023, 9.9 million international road arrivals were recorded

In the period January-November 2023, 9.9 million international road arrivals were recorded, compared to 7.6 million in the period January-November 2022, showing an increase of +31.6%. This translates into an additional 2.4 million road arrivals compared to last year.

At Evzoni station, road arrivals reached 2.2 million, registering an increase of 7.2%. This was followed by the border station of Kipi which recorded an increase of 45.6% with road arrivals amounting to 896 thousand. Next are the stations of Krystallopigi and Ormenios, with road arrivals at 689 thousand and 627 thousand, marking an increase of 10.6% and 33.8% respectively.

Kakavia station followed with 570 thousand, showing an increase of 9.3% and Nymfaia station with 528 thousand arrivals, showing an increase of 13.5%. At Niki station road arrivals reached 441 thousand showing an increase of 58.1% and in Exokhi the increase reached 54.3% with road arrivals amounting to 332 thousand. An increase of 8.2% was recorded at Doirani station, while 301 thousand road arrivals were recorded. At Sayada station, road arrivals reached 311 thousand, recording an increase of 32.6%

The largest percentage increase of 79.9% was recorded at Kastanie station where 197 thousand road arrivals were recorded. On the contrary, the lowest percentage increase of 3.0% was recorded at Kyprinos station where 129 thousand road arrivals were recorded. Finally, at the border stations of Agios Konstantinos and Mertzani there were 87 thousand and 26 thousand road arrivals, while an increase of 40.4% and 17.9% was recorded respectively.

And the Cruise at a record pace

It is worth noting that according to the provisional data, historical cruise passenger records were reached this year, both in total, as approximately 1.5 million passengers were served, compared to 880,000 in 2022, and in homeport passengers, which amounted to approximately 800,000, compared to 380,000. in 2022. The number of cruise ships served was 760, of which 525 were homeport.

In 2023, tourist offices made a strong “Come Back”

In any case, in 2023 the increase in tourism activity beyond the hospitality sector, a significant increase was also observed in the tourism offices sector. In fact, the president of the federation of tourist offices, Lyssandros Tsilidis, emphasized to APE-MPE that in 2023 the tourist offices made a strong “Come Back”, thus highlighting their important role in the tourism economy.