ATHENS – Germans’ love for Greece as a vacation spot saw hordes of them coming in 2022 during the waning COVID-19 pandemic, driven by holiday package sales up 22 percent, said the German Travel Association (DRV.)

While they poured in during the summer they are still coming in October and into the deeper autumn, Greece second only to Turkey – there are 2.774 million people of Turkish heritage in Germany – as the favorite destination.

Survey findings showed that German travelers spent more on their holidays this year compared to 2019 with expenditure per person per night up by 15 percent, said GTP Headlines in what was good news for Greece.

Even an attack on a German family on Crete didn’t deter the interest, Greece’s biggest island being a special lure for them.

“This shows that Germans wanted to travel again after a long period of deprivation during the pandemic and also made this wish happen sometimes at very short notice,” said DRV President Norbert Fiebig.