With just under half a million visitors, North Macedonia is in 11th place among the top 15 countries with the largest number of visitors to Greece for 2021, according to the analysis of the Institute of the Association of Greek Tourist Businesses (INSETE), reported the MIA correspondent from Athens .

Under the title "Who goes where?" How long does it stay? How much does it spend?", INSETE analyzes the official data from the Bank of Greece on tourism last year, focusing more specifically on the number of tourists in each of the 13 Greek regions.

The first 15 countries with the highest number of visits and visitors to Greece are Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, Netherlands, USA, Cyprus, North Macedonia, Switzerland, Austria, Serbia and Belgium.

Specifically for North Macedonia, last year, the number of visitors was almost twice as low (by 49,4 percent) compared to 2019, i.e. 479.000 visitors last year, compared to 948.000 three years ago.

In 2019, there were 962.000 visits from our country, compared to 480.000 visits last year, and the majority of visits were in the northern part of Greece.

According to the data and analysis, our country is unchanged in the 11th position. Among the countries of the region, before us is Bulgaria, in fifth place, and behind us is Serbia in 14th place.

- In 2021, a total of 16.376.000 visits were made in Greece in the 13 regions of the country, which shows a decrease of 55,3 percent compared to 2019 when there were 36.643.000 visits. The number of visits is higher than the number of visitors, which in 2021 was 31.348.000, because one visitor can visit more than one region during his trip to Greece, the analysis says.

The top three countries with the highest number of visits and visitors are Germany, in first place with 3.001.000 visitors, Great Britain with 1.591.000 and France with 1.175.000 visitors.

If the data from 2021 are compared with those from 2019, the largest drop, by 80,4 percent, is among visitors from Bulgaria.

The reduced number of visitors from North Macedonia during the last year is probably due to the fact that the borders were opened in mid-May and travel required a document for Covid-19, i.e. a vaccination certificate, a certificate of a previous illness or a negative PCR test or rapid test.

Regarding the peripheries, which is also the subject of the analysis, the islands in the southern part of the Aegean Sea are the most visited, followed by Crete, followed by the central part of northern Greece - the region that includes Thessaloniki and Halkidiki, where visitors from North Macedonia are among the top three countries.

- In third place is the region of central Macedonia with 2.934.000 visits, and most of the visits are from Bulgaria (529.000). This is followed by visits from Germany (480.000) and North Macedonia (461.000), the analysis says.

However, although North Macedonia is among the top three countries in terms of the number of visits in the specific region, it is not in the top three countries in terms of the number of nights spent and the expenses incurred during the stay.