Foreign visitors drive gains in Greek tourism in July

Tourist traffic in Greece continued its upward trend in July 2026. In response to provisional data from the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), arrivals at hotels, campsites and short-stay accommodation reached 6.61 million, while overnight stays rose to 31.70 million.

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Compared with July 2025, arrivals increased by 2.5%, and overnight stays by 2.0%.

Foreign visitors driving tourism growth

The image differs markedly between Greek and foreign visitors.

Foreign visitors made around 5.30 million arrivals in July 2026, compared with 1.30 million arrivals by Greeks. Foreigners due to this fact account for 80.3% of all arrivals, while domestic travellers make up 19.7%.

The gap is even wider with regards to overnight stays. Foreign visitors recorded 27.78 million overnight stays, compared with 3.92 million by Greeks. In other words, foreign tourists represent 87.6% of total overnight stays, while Greeks account for just 12.4%.

How Greeks and foreigners performed compared with 2025

A comparison with July 2025 shows that each groups moved upwards, but at a distinct pace.

Arrivals of foreign visitors rose by 2.9%, while their overnight stays increased by 2.2%.

For Greeks, the rise was more limited: arrivals went up by 0.8% and overnight stays by 0.4%.

Overall, the rise in tourist traffic in July was driven to a greater extent by demand from foreign markets.

Longer stays for foreign visitors

The difference between the 2 groups becomes even clearer when the common length of stay.

Across all kinds of accommodation, foreign visitors stayed on average 5.2 days, compared with 3.0 days for Greeks.

In hotel-type accommodation and campsites, the common stay for foreigners was 5.2 days, versus 2.8 days for Greeks.

Briefly-stay accommodation, the common stay was 5.4 days for foreign visitors and three.5 days for Greeks.

Overall, the common stay for all visitors stood at 4.8 days, unchanged compared with July 2025.

Hotels, rentals and campsites

The dominance of foreign visitors is just not limited to a single kind of accommodation.

In hotel-type accommodation, foreigners account for around 81.1% of arrivals, compared with 18.9% for Greeks. By way of overnight stays, the share of foreigners reaches 89.3%.

Briefly-stay accommodation, foreign visitors represent 79.6% of arrivals and 85.6% of overnight stays.

In campsites, the image is more balanced, although foreigners still hold the bulk: they account for 60.2% of arrivals and 55.9% of overnight stays, compared with 39.8% and 44.1% respectively for Greeks.

The general picture

In July 2026, a complete of 6,608,128 arrivals and 31,701,467 overnight stays were recorded within the tourism accommodation covered by the survey.

Compared with July 2025, arrivals increased by 158,486, while overnight stays were up by 624,020.

The figures point to a tourism sector that depends strongly on international demand: foreign visitors account for 4 out of 5 arrivals and almost nine out of ten overnight stays. At the identical time, they spend more days in accommodation than Greek visitors.

Note: The info for July 2026 are provisional. The info for July 2025 are final.

Additional sources • https://www.statistics.gr/