Demand for Greece is soaring, airline seats are increasing

By Vicky Kourlimbini

“Red” is the demand for holidays in Greece from all major foreign markets; something that is reflected in the new data published by the recovery tracker of the Institute to the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises fullness that already records popular destinations, such as Crete, which already reach 90% these days.

According to the data from INSETE, next week 879 thousand seats are scheduled for incoming international flights, while during the week from 4 to 10 July an additional 939 thousand. In fact, the planning is expected to rise significantly as we move towards the summer and to peak in August, the month in which the largest traffic from abroad is recorded.

Reservations are preceded by the UK market, followed by Germany, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Poland.

Demand has skyrocketed – after Athens – for the airports of Heraklion, Rhodes, Corfu, Thessaloniki, Kos, Chania, Santorini, Zakynthos, Mykonos and Kefalonia.

The tourist basket starts to fill up

Revenues over 15 billion. Euros are expected by the entrepreneurs of the tourist area. However, according to market factors, they may even reach the levels of 2019 or even exceed them (in 2019 it is recalled that we had 18 billion euros in tourist receipts and over 30 million arrivals from abroad), in case the tourist season hold and last until the end of the year which is also the big bet.

The first income has already entered the fund. According to the BoG, in April the travel receipts increased by 1,000% compared to the corresponding month of 2021. In particular, the receipts from Germany increased by 951.3% and amounted to 111.7 million euros and those from France by 1,530.6% to € 75.4 million. Receipts from the United Kingdom increased significantly, reaching 80.9 million euros, as well as receipts from the USA, which reached 33 million euros. In the period January-April, travel receipts increased by 576.7% compared to the corresponding period of 2021 and amounted to 1,116.7 million euros.

Incoming travel traffic in April was 1,056 thousand travelers, an increase of 884.3% compared to the corresponding month of 2021. In particular, travel traffic through airports increased by 1,494.3% compared to April 2021 and through 427.5% of road border stations.

In the four months, the incoming travel traffic increased by 462.7% and amounted to 2,128.7 thousand travelers, compared to 378.3 thousand travelers in the corresponding period of 2021.

The top destinations

Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Mykonos, Corfu, Santorini, Zakynthos and the southern Peloponnese are already full and by August many hotels are expected to be fully booked.

Hoteliers say this is a summer reminiscent of the rise of tourism before the pandemic broke out, and they hope that if airlines continue charter flights and tour operators extend their schedule until the end of November, they will be able to cover some of the damage. from the previous two years, since the package prices are agreed and have not changed this year in the contracts.

Indicative of the increase in demand recorded this year is the turnover of duty free. According to the latest data of “El. Venizelos” and the other airports, as stated by the Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias, the turnover from duty free increased in May by 391% compared to the corresponding month of 2021 and by 10.2% compared to in May 2019, a year “cloudless” for Greek tourism.

He also stressed that this year is characterized by multi-level crises (pandemic, inflationary pressures, energy crisis and Greek-Turkish relations) and for this reason in the Ministry of Tourism all moves are made step by step to protect as much as possible tourism that is a extremely volatile product.