Auspicious signs remain tourism outlook for 2023, despite the ongoing inflationary pressures Europe is facing and the uncertainty over the war still raging on its soil, according to Alpha Bank Economic Developments weekly. According to bank analysts (Chief Economist Panagiotis Kapopoulos), Greek tourism rebounded significantly last year, approaching the historically high levels of 2019 for the first time. international travel And collections (including cruise) were €27.8 million and €17.6 billion, respectively, down 11.2% and 3% from their respective amounts in 2019, according to the Bank of Greece.

As a result, service exports contributed 1.7 percentage points positively to 5.9% GDP growth in 2022. Analysts note that the autumn figures were very good, and in fact receipts in October exceeded the receipts of the corresponding month of 2019 by 3.3%. Germany, the UK, France, and the US were the top source countries, recording the strongest growth and accounting for half of revenue in 2022, up from 43% in 2019.

It is also emphasized that the recovery of arrivals in our country was stronger compared to Greece’s important competitors in the Mediterranean. For 2023, the bulletin reports particularly positive initial numbers. In the first two months, international tourist arrivals at Athens Airport were 4.3% higher than in 2019. International tourist arrivals at the country’s regional airports were up 0.8% compared to January 2019, according to Fraport data for January. from the beginning of the year to February 19 exceed the corresponding figures for 2019. However, the report also points to an important problem that needs to be addressed: the shortage of staff in Greek hotels. He cites a study by the Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasting, according to which in 2022 the shortage in hotels corresponded to 23% of the positions provided for in their organizational structure, or 60,200 employees.