PM upbeat on 2026 arrivals, sees no overtourism issue

Greece tin spot a rebound successful tourist arrivals if the situation successful the Middle East is resolved soon, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday, but warned manufacture officials that they can’t perpetually anticipation for caller grounds numbers of visitors.

Speaking astatine an lawsuit organized by the Greek Tourism Confederation, which uses the Greek acronym SETE, Mitsotakis besides rejected increasing unease astir the effect of tourism connected Greek society saying the state “loves the sector” and depends connected it.

“I judge that if the bully script [on the Middle East] pans retired … we will spot a surge successful the willingness of our traditional visitors to travel to Greece, though I can’t marque immoderate specific estimate,” helium said.

“The archetypal two months [of 2026] were exceptional” for tourism, helium added. “Clearly close present there is simply a slight halt. But I don’t consciousness that we look a large systemic situation successful Greek tourism’s show this year. We indispensable nevertheless … beryllium alert that it is not ever casual oregon imaginable to deed caller records each year.”

Mitsotakis besides voiced anticipation that Greek destinations could summation from a slump successful arrivals successful Middle Eastern resorts.

And helium played down fears that Greece is seeing too galore tourists for its ain good.

“I cull the conception of overtourism,” Mitsotakis said. “Greece is very intimately associated with tourism. Tourism is simply a main operator of the system … I don’t judge our state faces problems we person seen elsewhere, where there is simply a increasing κοινωνικά absorption against tourism. We emotion tourism arsenic a sector.”