Greece received more than a million foreign tourists in the first quarter of 2023, the tourist flow is growing from both the EU and the US, but the number of tourists from Russia has decreased by almost 50%, the Greek City Times reports.
"Inbound tourism grew by 74,7% to almost 1,1 million in the first quarter of 2023. According to the Bank of Greece, this growth over the same period led to a 63,8% increase of tourism revenue, to 732,9 million Euros," the publication writes.
As the portal notes, a significant increase of tourist traffic is recorded among countries outside the European Union (with the exception of Russia). Thus, for the first three months of 2023, Greece was visited by 148,3 thousand tourists from the UK (plus 61,9%) and 86,5 thousand travelers from the United States (plus 129,6%).
The flow of tourists from Russia decreased by 48,4% and amounted to 4,5 thousand people. According to the Border Service of the Russian Federation, over the first quarter of pre-pandemic 2019, 15,3 thousand Russian tourists visited Greece, in 2022 their number was 10,5 thousand.
The flow of tourists from Schengen countries increased by 40,2%, from the EU countries - by 80,4%. In particular, the number of tours from Germany increased by 4,4% and reached 158 thousand, and from France - by 72,7% and amounted to 92,8 thousand.
