 greece attracts more than 22.5 million people each year, contributing 18% to the nation's gross domestic product. greece has been an attraction for international visitors since antiquity for its rich and long history, mediterranean coastline and beaches.greece by paul hellander, kate armstrong, michael clark, des hannigan in 2005, 6,088,287 tourists alone visited the city of athens, the capital city. ==history==  tourism in greece traces its roots to the ancient times. cultural exchange took place between the greek colonies of magna graeca and the young roman republic before rome's rise to dominance of the western mediterranean. when greece was annexed by the roman empire centuries later, the cultural exchange that started between the two civilization triggered as a result a large number of romans visiting the famous centers of greek philosophy and science, such as athens, corinth and thebes, partly because greece had become a province of the roman empire and greeks were granted roman citizenship. tourism in modern-day greece started to flourish in the 1960s and 1970s, in what became known as mass tourism. during that time, large-scale construction projects for hotels and other such facilities were undertaken and the country saw an increase in international tourists over the years. international events such as the 2004 summer olympic games and the eurovision song contest 2006, both held in athens, greatly helped to boost tourism in the country, while large-scale nationally-funded cultural infrastructure such as the new acropolis museum also contributed to the flow of tourists in the country.thessaloniki will be european youth capital in 2014.  ==visitors==   in 2009, the country welcomed over 19.3 million tourists,{{cite web |url=http://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/setupmodifytablelayout.do |title=nights spen
Tourism_in_Europe Tourism_in_Greece