Tourism is an important industry which affects the profits of national economy. A strong tourism sector directly contributes to the national income of the country, combats unemployment and improves the balance of payments. Tourism demand is usually measured by the number of tourist visits from an origin country to a destination country, in terms of tourist nights spent in the destination country or in terms of tourist expenditures by visitors from an origin country to the destination country. The purpose of this study is to investigate the determinants of international tourism demand for Greece and to quantify their influences. Four econometric models have been developed with different combinations of countries, to estimate tourist inflow data from twenty-eight European and non-European countries, for the period 1996-2015. Various potential determinants are investigated, including gross domestic product, currency, the average per capita tourism expenditure and the marketing expenses to promote tourism industry. The empirical results indicate that the explanatory variables affect the tourism demand of Greece and play an important role in strategies that affect total cost, demand, and structure of the Greek tourism market.

Keywords: International tourism demand, Greece, panel data analysis, modelling