Wide regional tourism gap
Greece has a two-speed tourism industry, both in terms of travel revenues and international arrivals as there are great differences between the different regions according to the first analytical survey on regional variations by the Bank of Greece.
The report confirmed that travel takings last year amounted to 12.75 billion euros, not including revenues from cruise passengers. The bulk of that figure, 87.5 percent of the entire sum for 2016, was recorded in five regions: the Southern Aegean (3.14 billion euros), Crete (3.1 billion euros), Attica (1.73 billion euros), Central Macedonia (1.69 billion euros) and the Ionian Islands (1.5 billion euros).
The rest of the country’s regions – the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, Epirus, Western Greece, Central Greece and Western Macedonia – accounted for just 1.6 billion euros.
Similarly, the top tier of five regions received 86.4 percent of foreign arrivals, with Central Macedonia leading on 6.4 million visitors thanks mainly to road arrivals via the northern borders.
It is therefore no coincidence that the areas which receive the bulk of visitors also have the vast majority of hotel capacity. According to figures from the Hellenic Chamber of Hotels, the top tier of regions accounts for 314,615 hotel rooms out of a total of 407,146 across the country.