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.
Further evidence demonstrating the increased ability of Greeks to take vacations is provided by Elstat’s annual Household Budget Survey. The latest edition shows that the category most closely related to vacations, “Restaurants, cafes and hotels”, presents the fastest rise among 12 sub-categories of expenditure; its share in total household expenditure is the highest of the past 16 years, and is now higher than before the crisis.
The numbers speak for themselves: with a remarkable economic recovery, reflected in rising employment and real incomes (as documented by Eurostat), Greeks are taking more and longer vacations, which they overwhelmingly spend in Greece.
A number of Greeks, however, do have difficulties making ends meet, and raising their welfare standards is our government’s top priority. On that, we firmly believe we are on the right track. And the Greeks’ summer is alive and kicking.
Omiros Tsapalos
Spokesperson, Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance
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