Greece tourism gets US boost from stars and films

Greece's tourism industry is getting a fresh push from American visitors after celebrity holidays and screen exposure gave the country prominent publicity in the United States.

Madonna marked her 68th birthday on Corfu and shared images of parties and boat trips with her Instagram followers. Justin Bieber travelled with his family to the Peloponnese, while Katy Perry and Justin Trudeau visited Mykonos. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis thanked Madonna publicly for the attention.

Paris Tsartas, a tourism development professor at Harokopio University in Athens, told AFP that celebrity posts were giving Greece a strong lift as a summer destination, especially in the American market.

The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises says tourism accounts for nearly 30 percent of Greek GDP. It says about 1.55 million Americans visited Greece in 2025 and that US tourists are the country's third-largest source of tourism income after Germans and Britons, with average spending of 1,120 euros, or about $1,300, per visitor.

Airlines have added capacity as demand grows. Greece has 103 weekly direct flights between Athens and the United States this year, its highest number on record, and American Airlines has increased total available seat capacity by 30 percent compared with summer 2025.

Film and television exposure is also adding to interest. Parts of Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey", starring Matt Damon as Odysseus and Anne Hathaway as Penelope, were shot in the Peloponnese. EasyJet Holidays said bookings to Greece rose 18 percent in the weeks after the film's international release in mid-July, according to the Greek newspaper Kathimerini.

Netflix has also chosen Greece for the sixth season of "Emily in Paris", with lead actress Lily Collins and production teams seen this spring in Mykonos, Paros and Santorini.