Christmas Highlights 2022 | How did the market perform during the festive period?

Shopping activity on 23-31 December was at the same level as last year’s festive season with a limited increase of 5% compared to 2021. The most card transactions per minute were carried out on Christmas Eve, with 5,913 transactions.

Consumers visited physical stores for their holiday shopping, with the catering sector ranking among the top three places in terms of percentage increase in the number of transactions compared to last year. Specifically, transactions in the fast food sector increased by 50%, in restaurants by 47% and in cafés and bars by 38%.

In addition, the gambling and betting sector led the way in online transactions but there was also a significant increase in online train ticket bookings (+45%) and online toll charges (+49%).

Traditionally, holidays are an ideal opportunity for short or long trips. The top consumer destinations for 23/12-08/01 were the prefectures of Evritania, Trikala, Pella, Drama and Karditsa.

* Cardlink collects and processes data* from card transactions made at partner businesses and presents how the market performed during the festive period (23/12-08/01). These figures reflect general market trends and should not be considered representative of Worldline’s market share or profits in Greece.