The bar is rising for the Greek summer

By Vicky Kourlimbini

The days of Easter and the fullness recorded by the popular destinations gave the springboard for the start of this season. The satisfaction of the tourism entrepreneurs from the traffic of the days is great, and the expectations for the three days of May Day are high, as well as for the whole of May.

In destinations such as Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Gythio, Nafplio, Corfu, Crete, the islands of the Saronic Gulf, the occupancy exceeded even 90%, with a large percentage of foreign tourists. Athens also welcomed a large number of visitors from abroad and hoteliers expect, based on bookings, that the traffic will be equally high throughout May.

This can be seen in the recovery tracker of the Institute of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, with data from the travel data measurement company OAG. It is characteristic that in the week from April 25 to May 1, 392 thousand air seats have been planned, with the increase reaching 14% compared to the previous week.

Tourists expect that after May 15 arrivals from foreign markets will take the “uphill”. Arrivals from Germany, the United Kingdom, France and the United States are already on the rise.

“Tourism will boost the economy”

“After two years of pandemic, with the war near us, but also with precision conditions that affect everyone’s lives, we are called to cope with a new regularity. Tourism, again a protagonist, will strengthen local communities and the economy,” he commented on Twitter. president of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises Giannis Retsos.

Traffic at airports

According to data from the Civil Aviation Authority, in the first quarter the total number of passengers handled reached 4,490,580 million, showing an increase of 299.1% compared to the corresponding period of 2021 where 1,125,290 million passengers were handled. In terms of flights at the country’s airports, they amounted to 56,323, of which 34,640 were domestic and 21,683 international, showing an increase of 81.7%, compared to the corresponding period of 2021 with 30,994 flights.

Indicative in the first two months

In January and February, travel receipts increased by 306.2% compared to the corresponding period of 2021 and amounted to 273.0 million euros. At the same time, according to the BoG, the incoming travel traffic increased by 282.5% and amounted to 658.4 thousand travelers, compared to 172.2 thousand travelers in the corresponding period of 2021. Tourist entrepreneurs expect tourism figures to approach this year the performance of 2019, at least in terms of arrivals.