Greeks Opt for Domestic Travel, Longer Stays – Eurostat

Kythera. Photo © Marketing Greece

Greeks prefer to travel in their own country and take the longest trips in the European Union, according to a survey released recently by Eurostat covering 1.3 billion leisure and business trips in the EU in 2017.

More specifically, 73 percent of all trips by EU nationals are within their own country, 27 percent abroad, of which 21 percent to other EU countries and 6 percent to non-EU destinations.

Half of all trips were for holidays and leisure, one-third for visits to relatives and friends, and one in eight for business.

Overall, in 2017, the number of trips for tourism by EU nationals rose by 4 percent to 1.3 billion trips and 6.4 billion nights compared with 2016.

Most of the trips were made by car, while the majority of the EU’s travelers preferred to stay in rented accommodation (55 percent).

Greece Travel Trends

A closer look indicates that 88 percent of Greeks chose to travel at home, among the highest EU share, with Romanians in the lead at 94 percent, followed by the Spanish (91 percent), the Portuguese (89 percent), the French (87 percent) and the Bulgarians (86 percent).

During these trips, Greeks stay on average 9.9 nights – nearly double the EU average at 5.1 days – followed by Luxembourg nationals at 7.1 days, travelers from Belgium and the Netherlands at 6.5 days.

Holidaymakers from the UK travel for an average 5.5 days, with 32.8 percent of all trips taken abroad, compared to the EU average of 26.7 percent.

The duration of trips for Estonians and Latvians is the shortest at under four nights (3.3).

In terms of outbound long-haul trips, Luxembourg holds the lead at 98 percent, followed by Belgium (80 percent), Malta (68 percent) and Slovenia (62 percent).

Means of transport

According to the report, the most common means of transport for trips was private or rented motor vehicles at 64 percent, followed by airplanes (17 percent), trains (11 percent), buses (6 percent) and water vessels (2 percent).

The French recorded the highest use of trains for tourism trips at 15 percent, the opposite of the Greeks at 1 percent, who use water vessels as a main means of transport for 17 percent of their trips.