Omiros Tsapalos, from the Greek ministry of finance, responds to an article about his compatriots’ ability to take a holiday
Your article concludes that while foreign visitors can savour Greece’s natural beauty and other joys of their country, for Greeks such pleasures have become a bittersweet memory (‘The Thailand of Europe’: foreigners live holiday dreams in Greece but locals priced out, 20 August). We beg to differ, because the evidence points exactly to the opposite.
Every year the Greek statistical authority, Elstat, publishes its Survey on Qualitative Characteristics of Resident Tourists. The July 2025 edition presents comprehensive evidence that Greek residents’ trips and nights spent on trips for leisure, recreation and holidays have been rising since 2021. Both the number of trips and the total number of nights spent on vacations are at their peak for the past decade. The overwhelming majority (more than 85%) of Greeks’ vacations take place within Greece, and more than 70% occur in the summer months of June, July and August.
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