As Greek tourism braces for a difficult season this year, data on visits to ancient sites and museums in 2008 showed a sharp drop on the year before. The National Statistics Service said the number of museum visitors plunged 18.7 percent to 1,994,864 in 2008, while the more famous archaeological sites saw drops of up to 30 percent. The Acropolis attracted the most visitors in 2008 with 1,071,060, a decline of 7 percent, followed by the Minoan palace at Knossos on Crete with 610,664, down 10.2 percent. Ticket sales at Delphi fell by 27.2 percent and at Corinth by 33.8 percent. Of the country’s museums, the Athens Archaeological Museum was the most popular, followed by the Palace of the Grand Master / Knights’ Castle on Rhodes.