Senior citizens (age 65 and over), who visited Greece in 2016, expended a total of approximately two billion euros, according to a study conducted by the Institute of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (INSETE).

The study is based on data from IPK International, a company specialising in the travel behaviour of tourists.

Tourist aged 65 and over made 1.7 million trips to Greece in 2016, and 6.1 percent of tourist who visited on cruise ships were also in that age bracket.

There were 16.5mn overnight stays (and seniors constituted 8.5 percent of all overnight stays from cruise ships).

The study showed that 93 percent of visitors, 93 percent of overnight stays, and 76 percent of the total expenditures, came from European markets, while seven percent of overnight stays and 24 percent of the total expenditures were from non-European markets.

Greece was the seventh most popular destination for European markets, and 10th most popular in non-European markets, with a five percent and four percent market share, respectively.

The top European markets for Greece were the UK (404,000 tourists), Germany, (336,000), and France (238,000).

The greatest number of tourists from non-European markets were from the US. They represented 49 percent of non-European visitors, 58 percent of overnight stays, and 43 percent of tourism expenditures in that category.

According to its website, “INSETE is a non-profit organisation founded in early 2013, on the initiative of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), by four partners with intense activity in critical areas of the Greek tourism market: SETE (principal partner), the Hellenic Hoteliers Federation (HHF), the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourist Agencies (HATTA) and SETKE, the Confederation of Entrepreneurs of Rented Rooms and Apartments.”

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