Greece is the fourth most popular holiday destination for European citizens in 2012 - after Spain, Italy and France - according to a Flash Eurobarometer survey released in Brussels on Monday.

Four percent of Europeans are planning a holiday in Greece within 2012, compared with 10 percent in Spain, 7 percent in Italy and 6 percent in France.

The same survey showed that 70 percent of Greeks did not go on holiday in 2011, while 80 percent of Greeks that took holidays chose a destination within Greece. Of those that did not go on holiday, 70 percent said that this for financial reasons. This answer was only given by 45 percent of respondents in the EU as a whole.

A further 48 percent of Greeks said that the current economic crisis had caused them to change their holiday plans for 2012 (compared with 33 percent in the EU) while another 35 percent replied that they do not plan to go on holiday.

In Europe, 73 percent said that they intend to go on holiday in 2012.

The most popular holiday destinations in 2011 were Spain (11 percent), Italy (9 percent), France (8 percent), Germany (5 percent), Austria (5 percent) and Greece (4 percent). During that year, more Europeans chose to take holidays in their own country (Greece - 80 percent, Italy - 74 percent, Croatia - 73 percent) or another EU country. This trend was even more marked in 2012.

The survey was carried out using a random sample of 30,000 European citizens aged 15 years or over in the 27 EU member-states, Norway, Iceland, Croatia, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Serbia and Israel.