The number of travellers to Mount Athos in northern Greece rose by 30% compared with last year, according to one of the companies handling the routes to the all-male monastic community, while another said that Russian pilgrims have been replaced by Romanians since the war with Ukraine.
‘Agioreitikes Grammes’ company said that over 163,000 passengers traveled on the line’s ships from January 1 to June 16 to the monastic community, which occupies the eastern-most leg of the Chalkidiki peninsula. A total of 352,000 men took the same route in all of 2025, averaging about 1,000 passengers a day. In addition, the same line’s ships transported 18,000 professional vehicles (8,000 between 1 January and 16 June 2025) for supplies to monasteries and supporting projects at Mt Athos. Since the war that broke out in 2022, Russian and Ukrainian visitors have been replaced by nationals of Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Cyprus, and Greece, with the most popular pilgrimage times being Easter, March, and October. The number of travelers drops slightly in the summer.
Ouranoupoli stores
Travelers to the community use ships that leave from the town of Ouranoupoli or Ierissos and disembark at Dafni, the first port of Mt Athos, or other ports of the monastic community. Local store owners in Ouranoupoli, whose economy is largely supported by pilgrims to Mt Athos, say that currently, 90% of visitors are Romanians, who spend significantly less than Russians used to on ecclesiastical souvenirs and products from the monasteries that include handicrafts and local produce.
According to Dimitris Tamvakis, who owns shops in Ouranoupoli, “Russians and Ukrainians have left because of the war, and have been replaced by Romanians to some extent, but not by enough.” As he told Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA), “Romanians will buy Mt Athos olive oil and olives and honey, but will not buy beauty products or icons of higher value. Russians used to leave a lot of money in the region, and I am not speaking just of icons. They could fill an entire basket with beauty products, they spent lavishly.”
Yacht leasing
Athos Sea Cruises official Georgios Rodokalakis said the number of travelers on the scenic routes of ships sailing aroung Mt Athos, in which women can participate in, has been halved. “At some point, all [the company’s] ships used to transport nearly 210,000 people annually. Currently, traffic has dropped by half,” he told ANA-MPA. He attributes the change to a switch in interest by travelers, who would rather take a cruise including a stopover for a swim, and to many small yachts and rental boats that can be individually leased.
In terms of nationalities, he said that “Greeks were very active in 2008-2009, then came the economic crisis and their number dropped. Afterwards, and for a decade, we had a lot of Bulgarians and Romanians. As of 2019, we have mostly Romanians, traveling individually instead of in groups, and currently I have a mix of people from all over. Right now, there are only two Greeks on the boat,” he said, noting that the region suffers from infrastructural issues and very high prices.
Aristotelis Municipality tourism consultant Maria Pappa, on the other hand, says that international interest in the monastic community of Mt Athos remains very high and the contribution of pilgrims to the local economy very high. “Besides pilgrims, priests arrive from various countries – Lebanon, Moldova, Cyprus – and may even buy church vestments. Yesterday I paid a visit to a store that sells wine and honey from the monasteries, and the line was long up to 10:00 pm, while the store had opened at 8:00 am,” she told ANA-MPA. In addition, there is high demand for monastery-made jewellery and other monastic products, while there are a lot of leased yachts, raising sailing tourism, she noted while there is increased interest in activities related to Mt Athos but outside the confines of the community.
