INSETE: Majority of Tourists to Greece Book in Advance

An increasing number of Europeans, mostly females, visited Greece last year for their holidays, stayed longer, and the majority booked in advance, according to a new study released by INSETE, the Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) intelligence body, in collaboration with research firm ΙPK Ιnternational.

The study collected data on the profile of travelers who visited Greece in the 2016-2017 period.

According to INSETE data, the number of tourists who made at least one overnight stay in 2017 rose by 9.8 percent to almost 23 million compared to a year before.

The study showed that Europeans appear to have a soft spot for Greece, with over 20.5 million arrivals in 2017, compared with non-EU nationals at 2.6 million.

Among these tourists, a mighty 93.2 percent booked their holidays to Greece in advance in 2017. Bookings were mainly made online (79.6 percent), followed by reservations made via travel agencies (40.4 percent), directly to hotels (12.3 percent) and transport agencies (10.4 percent).

Source markets which recorded increases in the given period were: the Netherlands up by 24.1 percent, followed by Germany at 17.8 percent and the US up by 12 percent.

Leading the way in terms of market share is Germany in first place, followed by the UK, France and Italy.

The six main markets – Germany, UK, France, Italy, US, and the Netherlands  – accounted for 46.1 percent of all visitors to Greece, in the 2016-2017 period.

Photo source: Region of Attica

INSETE-IPK analysts found that visitors to Greece are for the most part female, accounting for 51.6 percent of the total with the average traveler in the 25-54 age bracket (64.6 percent). The report indicates that the number of holiday makers from all age groups increased in the said period.

The main reasons of travel in 2017, according to the survey, was for holidays (88.8 percent), visiting friends (4.4 percent), conferences (3 percent) and business (2.5 percent).

Again, the leading holiday type was sea & sun in 2017 at 68.4 percent, travel at 12.8 percent, city break (8 percent) and cruise travel (4 percent).

Photo © Maria Theofanopoulou

According to the data, the majority of visitors to Greece in 2017 were in the upper education bracket (58.9 percent), while the number of high income tourists increased by 1.19 million, middle income by 210.000 and middle to lower by 344,000.

The majority of travelers to Greece turn to the Internet for information (85.3 percent), travel agency (44 percent), friends and relatives (19.6 percent) and tour operators (9.3 percent).