ECONOMY

Greeks taking longer and more pricey vacations

Greeks continue to travel more often and spend more money on their vacation, according to a survey by Kapa Research, with both frequency of trips and expenditure on an uptrend. The annual survey on the tourism behavior of Greeks found that 89.8 percent made at least one leisure trip in 2006 either in Greece (64.5 percent), abroad (5.9 percent) or both (19.4 percent). Only 10.2 percent responded that they had made no trips at all last year, down from 13 percent in 2005. This trend has been steadily rising in the last three years and the figure of 89.8 percent is the highest for the last six years (89.2 percent in 2002). However, there is a clear decline in Greeks taking their vacations abroad, with the respective figure falling from 45.3 percent in 2005 to 42.1 percent in 2006. The majority of respondents (56.1 percent) said they spend more than -900 on their vacations, up from 52.7 percent in the previous survey, continuing a growing trend that has lasted three years. There is a smaller percentage of people (39.8 percent) who spend less than -900, down from 44.2 percent in the previous survey, and an even smaller one (19.1 percent) who spend over -1,500 (up from 17.7 percent last year). The average length of the summer vacation is two weeks (22.4 percent). Another 17.4 percent holiday for 10 days while 25.6 percent said their vacation lasted more than one month.

Subscribe to our Newsletters

Enter your information below to receive our weekly newsletters with the latest insights, opinion pieces and current events straight to your inbox.

By signing up you are agreeing to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.