Overseas markets, such as the US, Australia, China, Japan, Korea and Canada, from where the air journey to Greece takes more than 10 hours, offer scope for significant further development of Greek tourism.

Most of the travelers from those markets belong to the upper income classes and usually their daily expenditure per capita is significantly higher than that of other nationalities, such as those from the main European markets, namely Germany, France, Italy and also the United Kingdom, which are the backbone of Greek tourism.

This is according to the Long-Haul Travel Barometer (LHTB), the latest survey by the European Travel Commission and Eurail BV on a broad sample of respondents in those overseas markets about their travel intentions in 2024.

The same data rank Greece fifth along with Austria in the preferences of Americans as well as Australians who intend to travel to Europe this year, sixth in the preferences of Canadians, seventh for Brazilians and South Koreans, ninth in the preferences of the Japanese and 10th of the Chinese.

These are markets that cumulatively have a population multiple times that of Europe and can potentially lead to a new era of growth and higher revenues for Greek tourism, economists comment. Across all markets, 38% of respondents are willing to spend more than 200 euros per day, more than double the average per capita daily spent in Greece in 2023.

Security, quality of accommodation infrastructure and price competitiveness are the three “keys” for the final choice of destination, according to the survey. Of the nationals from the above seven key overseas markets wishing to travel abroad in 2024, 75% plan to visit Europe, with the remaining 25% considering other regions. Greece is consistently in the top 10 choices and in some cases higher.

Those who will avoid traveling to Europe this year cite as the main reasons the war in Ukraine, the tension in the Middle East, previous visits to continent, the high costs of air travel and the limited time they have for vacations.