By A. Tsimplakis
[email protected]
The Greek Tourism Confederation’s (SETE) research arm, SETE Intelligence, forecasts a continuing bright future for the east Mediterranean country’s all-important tourism sector, as its most recent survey points to the positive economic status of the countries from whom the biggest blocs of tourists to Greece originate.
Based on SETE Intelligence figures for 2015, Germany ranks high in terms of tourists visiting Greece, with an overall share of 11.9 percent of all tourist arrivals to the country.
Figures for 2016 will easily exceed 2015’s tally, while the prospects for another record-setting year in 2017 are also high.
The UK comes behind Germany in terms of tourist arrivals to Greece (10.2 percent), followed by France (6.4 percent) and Italy (5.7 percent) but with two neighboring countries having skyrocketed to the top in just a few years: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM), with 12.8 percent of all tourist arrivals to Greece in 2015, and Bulgaria, posting 8.1 percent.
2015 also witnessed an increase in tourism arrivals from all countries, sans Russia. Tourist arrivals in 2016 were up by 5.1 percent, yoy, with the Russian market rebounding as well, up 16.1 percent in 2016, yoy.
The “fly in the ointment”, however, was the unexpected decrease in tourism revenues (including the cruise sector) by 3.7 percent.
SETE Intelligence made a particular reference to the major hike in tourism arrivals from fYRoM and Bulgaria, saying the trend is not only due to the very satisfactory growth of the two countries between 2014 and 2016, but also to a preference by residents in the two countries for weekend and three-day getaways to Greek destinations, and mostly via private vehicles.
Arrivals from those two countries alone to Greece in 2015 reached 4.92 million, an increase of 114.8 percent from 2013, with the trend expected to be confirmed by numbers for 2016.
