Surprising Regions Raise Greece's Reputation in Winter

With "vehicles" of culture, gastronomy and hospitality, Greece, Athens and its Regions also stand out in the perceptions of travelers in winter, since online ratings of their experiences in the country exceed the European average of ratings, as reflected in social networks and travel pages during the past winter period (October 2024-March 2025).

As shown by a report by INSETE in collaboration with TCI Research (now part of the MMGY company), Thessaly had the highest experience rating among the 13 Regions, confirming the potential for expanding tourism activity to more areas of the country.

In fact, the highest overall scores for Greece, 9.5 and 9.3 respectively, were given by visitors from the United States and the United Kingdom, followed by Germans (8.9), French (8.8), and Italians (8.8).

Specifically, according to the NSI (Net Sentiment Index), which shows the evolution of the country's online reputation during the past winter season...

Greece (59) ranks fourth after Croatia (72), Portugal (61), and Italy (61). Spain (47) ranks last.

Greece's NSI index showed steady improvement, rising from 44 in October to 71 in December, before gradually decreasing to 56 in February and recovering to 67 in March.
The NSI for Athens (56) showed greater fluctuations: it fell from 44 in October to 38 in November, rebounded to 76 in December, then fell sharply to 26 in February, before recovering to 73 in March.
The drop in February is linked to a series of events in Athens and Greece as a whole, including the earthquakes in Santorini and the protests related to the anniversary of the Tempi train accident.

In terms of the content of online discussions during the winter period, culture remained the dominant topic, significantly outperforming all other categories. However, it only ranked third (NSI 85) in terms of positive perception. Gastronomy (NSI 89) and Hospitality (NSI 89) emerged as the topics with the most positive perception, despite the fact that Hospitality garnered significantly fewer mentions.

Sustainability showed an upward trend (NSI 76), probably thanks to successful sustainability initiatives, such as waste management on the island of Tilos - but remains a topic with comparatively more negative mentions.

Regarding the topics of online discussions in particular, they concern culture, sustainability, and authentic local experiences, feeding the country's reputation with positive stories. Indicatively, positive reports were recorded about gastronomy (e.g. culinary tours in Athens, Truffle Festival in Kalambaka), about traditional destinations (e.g. Old Town of Xanthi), about nature (e.g. hiking in Andros), about the country's progress in sustainability issues (e.g. European award for Tilos, new partnerships with France and Canada for the release of dolphins in a Greek sanctuary in the Aegean Sea)

Based on the analysis, online discussions that negatively affect Greece's reputation continue to focus mainly on environmental issues and natural phenomena (e.g., earthquakes in Santorini, floods in Paros and Mykonos, seabed research at Calypso Deep that revealed high levels of marine debris).

Above the European average

In ratings on tourism sites (online travel agents, travel review sites, etc.), the satisfaction level for Greece remained very high (9.2) and higher than the score for Europe as a whole (8.9).

Although the volume of reviews decreased after October, satisfaction levels remained high across the country – the vast majority of regions have a score of at least 9.0, including Athens, which showed a consistently high performance (9.2) throughout the low season.

Cultural experiences continued to perform best nationally, with a top score of 9.4, followed by seaside experiences (9.2) and gastronomy (9.1).

Thessaly has the highest experience score

At the regional level, Thessaly (9.5) was rated with the highest overall score among the regions, standing out in all dimensions of experience. Peloponnese followed with 9.3, with particularly high scores in culture (9.5) and sea experience (9.5), while Western Macedonia (9.4) also exceeded the national averages, thanks to gastronomy (9.4).

Attica (9.2) and the Ionian Islands (9.2) are rated at the national average and performed well in all indicators.

The analysis shows that travelers in Greece highly value human resources, giving an excellent score of around 9.5 for the country as a whole. In particular, North Aegean (9.8), Epirus (9.8), West Macedonia (9.7), and Thessaly (9.7) received an exceptionally high percentage of positive reviews for employees focusing on the high level of customer service and hospitality.

North Aegean, despite the lower number of reviews, ranked first in the gastronomy dimension (9.6).

Central Greece (8.9) and West Greece (9.0) scored below average overall, mainly due to lower scores in gastronomy.

9.2 points for value for money

Overall, satisfaction is recorded with the value of experiences in relation to the cost (Value For Money), giving the country a score of 9.2 and small variations between regions, with the lowest score being attributed to Eastern Macedonia and Thrace (8.6).

Regarding sustainability (8.6) and hygiene (8.2), greater variation is recorded between regions.

Regarding perceived sustainability, some regions such as Eastern Macedonia (7.5), Cyclades (7.1), Crete (8.2), Dodecanese (8.5), Ionian Islands (7.9) and Central Greece (7.5) score below the national average. Peloponnese (10), followed by Attica (9), received the most positive mentions in online comments. Regarding hygiene, the Peloponnese (7.2) and the Ionian Islands (7.2) received the highest number of negative reports.

The report also includes data for the 13 Regions of the country (with the division of the Aegean into Cyclades and Dodecanese), which reflect the tourist experience in terms of catering and attractions. As part of the analysis, 125 thousand comments have been evaluated for attractions and 82 thousand for restaurants/bars in Greece, and 7.8 million and 15.2 million, respectively, for competing destinations.