Greek tourism is showing resilience, with nominal hotel sales estimated to grow by 3% in 2026, despite the Gulf crisis and economic pressure on European households.
Although the US-Iran war has triggered strong energy inflation, doubling the cost of jet fuel, strong demand for travel to Greece has prevented the season from being derailed. This highlights the sector’s high dependence on air transport, making air connectivity and fare costs a key parameter that threatens future performance if pressures become entrenched.
These conclusions stem from the business trends study by the Economic Analysis Department of the National Bank of Greece, which is based on field research in April and May. According to the NBG analysts, although small and medium-sized hotel businesses initially predicted a marginal increase in sales of just 0.4%, the gradual normalization of the economic situation revised the overall annual estimate for the sector to 3%, compared to 4.5% in 2025.
That outlook is in line with international estimates for European tourism, which predict a rise of 3% to 4%, while it is supported by the immediate recovery of the future demand index for Greek hotels, which in May returned to 27 points above the average of the last five years.
