Turkish Visits to Greece Top 1.5 Million as Greece’s Trade Deficit Widens to €3.34 Billion
Updated
Updated · Euronews · May 26
Turkish Visits to Greece Top 1.5 Million as Greece’s Trade Deficit Widens to €3.34 Billion
1 articles · Updated · Euronews · May 26
More than 1.5 million Turks visited Greece last year—triple the level of four years earlier—while Greek arrivals in Turkey stayed roughly flat at just over 500,000.
Lower prices in Greece are driving the shift: Turkish travelers say food, holidays and shopping cost less there, while Greeks increasingly avoid Istanbul because Turkey’s cost of living has surged.
About 1,300 Greek visas a day are issued in Istanbul, and a seven-day “Visa Express” for 12 Aegean islands has added another stream of short-stay arrivals, with August 2025 alone drawing nearly 281,000 visitors.
Spending per trip was relatively close—€303 for Turkish visitors to Greece versus €340 for Greeks in Turkey—but Greeks now get far less for their money than in the past.
Trade has tilted the same way: Greece’s imports from Turkey are estimated at €3.34 billion for 2025, while Greek exports to Turkey fell to about €1.37 billion from €3 billion in 2022.
As Turkey's crisis fuels a Greek tourism boom, what happens if its economy unexpectedly recovers?
Can a tourism boom truly mend the deep geopolitical rift between Greece and Turkey?