Wave of bookings by German tourists – Airlines are expanding availability

of Vicky Kourlibini

More flights to Greek destinations are being added by German airlines due to the growing demand for last minute bookings.

Indicatively, Condor, which flies to 17 destinations in Greece, plans to offer 1.8 million seats this year, 200,000 more than in 2019.

“We have already reached 99% of the 2019 level,” said Heiko Brix, Eurowings Tourism Sales Manager.

Eurowings Discover, a Lufthansa subsidiary, is putting four of its ten planes on flights to 11 Greek destinations this summer.

TUI Fly estimates that three million tourists from European countries will be transported to Greece this year.

They want to travel

More than a third of respondents, 35% more specifically, do not have a specific destination in mind when planning their trip. 42% even stated that there is flexibility as to where and when he will travel this year.

These are some of the results of the research conducted by Skyscanner and One Poll to more than 1,000 Germans in April.

It is also indicative that TUI and DER Touristik even talk about doubling the bookings in many Greek destinations, at least until November.

How important is the German market

It is the largest and most important “reservoir” of visitors for Greek tourism.

Germany was in first place in terms of revenue, overnight stays and the number of visitors, being the main market of incoming tourism in Greece in 2019, which was a milestone year for the country’s tourism size.

According to INSETE data, in the period 2008-2019, visitors from Germany increased by 1.6 times and in 2019 amounted to 4,026 thousand (compared to 2,269 thousand in 2008).

Receipts, in the corresponding period, increased by 1.5 and amounted to € 2,959 million in 2019 (compared to € 1,916 million in 2008), while overnight stays increased by 1.2 and are estimated in 2019 at 37,313 thousand (compared to 30,701 mm in 2008).

Visits from Germany are estimated at 4,436 thousand or 12.1% of the total, overnight stays at 37,313 thousand or 16.1% of the total and receipts at € 2,959 million or 16.7% of the total .

The main volume of visits from Germany in 2019 was recorded in the South Aegean Region with visits amounting to 1,176 thousand, recording the largest percentage increase by + 6.3%.

Receipts in the South Aegean Region amounted to € 994 million compared to € 831 million in 2018. In addition, overnight stays showed an increase of + 8.1%

Last year, based on the data of TtE, revenues from Germany increased by 108.9% compared to 2020 and amounted to 2.37 billion euros in total tourism revenues of 10.6 billion euros.

Arrivals also rose significantly, by 96.6%, reaching three million travelers out of a total of 14.7 million arrivals from abroad.