2024-07-17 21:12:23
In the top ten countries of the world, and specifically in ninth place, Greece appears for the first time in its history in 2023 according to the World Tourism Barometer of the World Tourism Organization. The pandemic caused many changes in the relative ranking of countries and given the immediate recovery of our country to levels higher than in 2019, it took Greece from 13th place in the world list that year to ninth in 2023.
Greece passed Austria but also countries such as China, Japan and Thailand that were leading in 2019.
In particular, in 2019, our country was in 13th place with 31.3 million tourists, while in twelfth place was Japan with 31.9 million tourists, in eleventh Austria with 31.9 million also, in eighth place Thailand with 39, 9 million and in fourth China with 65.7 million.
Japan, Thailand and China have not yet recovered from the pandemic, while Austria reached 30.9 million arrivals in 2023. However, Greece with 32.7 million arrivals was in ninth place in 2023.
France, Spain, United States, Italy, Turkey, Mexico, United Kingdom and Germany occupy the top eight positions in the world ranking in 2023. It should also be noted the impressive rise of the United Arab Emirates, which went from 19th place in 2019 to 12th in 2023, and of Saudi Arabia (from 25th place to 14th in four years. Portugal remains firmly in 15th place in the world ranking.
In third place in Europe in 2024
Meanwhile, in the first two quarters of 2024, tourism activity in Europe largely followed a similar trend. International travel increased across the continent compared to last year, with overseas arrivals up 12% and overnight stays up 10% based on data from reporting European destinations, according to the EUROPEAN TOURISM: TRENDS survey. & PROSPECTS, Q2/2024″ of the “European Travel Commission”.
In the first positions of the countries that show the greatest increase in arrivals in Europe in the first half of the year, compared to the corresponding period last year, but also to 2019, is Greece.
Notable increases in international tourist arrivals, compared to 2019 levels, were recorded in lesser-known destinations such as Serbia (+40%) and Bulgaria (+29%), as well as perennial favorites such as Malta (+37%) , Portugal (+26%), Turkey (+22%) and Greece (20.4%). The Nordic countries are also showing increasing appeal, with overnight stays by foreigners increasing in Denmark (+38%), Norway (+18%) and Sweden (+9%). This shows increasing success outside of Southern Europe and in relatively more expensive destinations.
In contrast, the Baltic region continues to struggle, with Latvia (-24%), Estonia (-16%) and Lithuania (-15%) still showing international arrivals well below 2019.
Compared to the corresponding period of 2023, Greece is in third place in terms of increase in international tourist arrivals, with an increase of 24.4%, followed by Malta (+31.3%) and Norway (+28%) .
While, at the same time, it is also placed in the countries with the most important increases in incoming expenditure from the beginning of the year to date, being in second place, with an increase of 25%, with Spain first (25%), Italy third (20%) and fourth France (16%).
Also notable in 2024 are the rise in international air arrivals in Albania (+86%), Serbia (+48%) and Montenegro (+31%), and the contribution of Chinese (+9%) and Americans (+8%) ) in the rise of the tourist flow to Europe.
Report Lambros Karageorgos
Source: ot.gr