The Acropolis of Athens was Greece’s most-visited archaeological site in 2024 amid a surge in visitors across the country’s countless ancient sites and museums, according to the latest data published by ELSTAT.
Over 20 million people visited Greece’s archaeological sites and museums last year, bringing a total of 171 million euros ($193 million) in the government’s coffers, up from 157 million euros ($178 million) in 2023 and 121 million euros ($137) in 2022, Greece’s statistical agency said.
Revenues from visitors at archaeological sites reached 128 million euros ($145 million) while those from museums reached almost 44 million euros ($49 million).
The above surge in revenues is attributed to the record number of tourists visiting Greece in 2024, reaching 36 million -compared to 32.7 million in 2023.
In terms of traffic at the country’s archaeological sites, the Acropolis topped the list, with over 4.5 million visiting the world-famous site. The ancient monument is followed by the Royal Tombs of Vergina in northern Greece, the ancient site of Delphi in central Greece and the iconic Palace of Knossos on the island of Crete.
Among Greece’s many museums, the Acropolis Museum topped the list with almost two million visiting the emblematic museum in 2024. The National Archaeological Museum trails second, followed by the White Tower Museum in Thessaloniki, and the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete.
Acropolis tops the list of most-visited archaeological sites as Greece sets new tourism record in 2024
Greece set a new record in tourism revenues for 2024, collecting 21.7 billion euros ($22.6 billion), up from 20.6 billion euros ($21.5 billion) in 2023, according to data released by The Bank of Greece.
The increase by 5.3 percent or 1.1 billion euros ($1.15 billion) compared to last year, has been long expected by both Greek government officials and tourism businesses given the steady rise of tourist arrivals throughout 2024.
After a two-year pause during the pandemic when international travel was affected and tourism came to a standstill, Greece has been seeing a steady increase both in the number of tourist arrivals and tourism revenues.
In 2019, the last year before global travel was interrupted due to COVID, Greece recorded revenues of 18.2 billion euros ($19.17 billion) and 31.3 million tourist arrivals. Numbers dropped dramatically in 2020 and 2021 and started to pick up again in 2022, when Greece welcomed 27.84 million international tourists, a 227 percent increase compared to 2020 but still 18 percent less than 2019 (pre-pandemic).
In 2023, Greece made a phenomenal comeback as an international tourism destination, and has continued to do so since. The number of tourists that visited the Mediterranean country of 10.3 million in 2023 (33 million) marked a 120 percent increase between 2019 and 2023.
Tourism accounts for over a quarter of Greece’s economic output and nearly two million Greeks’ annual income derives from the sector.