Central Macedonia, Attica, South Aegean top tourist picks

Visits to regions of Greece and expenditure by visitors to the country both posted an increase of 23 percent from 2016 to 2018, but average spending per visit remained almost the same, at 449 euros, according to a report by the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE).

In 2018, the number of visits to Greek regions came to 34.83 million, up 23 percent from 28.38 million in 2016, while tourism receipts over the same period also jumped 23 percent, from 12.75 billion euros to 15.65 billion euros.

By the statistical term "visits," INSETE refers to each region of the country a tourist has visited, so if someone coming to Greece travels to two regions (such as Attica and South Aegean), that is recorded in the Border Survey of the Bank of Greece as one arrival and two visits. This is why the sum of visits to the regions exceeds the sum of arrivals in the country...