From climate change, to major summer sporting events and the volatile factors that can affect the planet tourism industry the development of this year’s tourism year for Greece as well as for competing countries. Indeed, on the occasion of the recent negative development regarding the bankruptcy of the German travel organizer FTI, the comment of the president of XEE, Alexandros Vassilikos, is typical, as he emphasizes that tourism proves once again that lends itself to neither. excess optimism or complacency, because on the one hand, many data can be disrupted at any time.
Even if the current unpleasant development does not seem to affect the overall picture that is emerging for 2024 in Greece, the more than 160,000 reservations planned for this year, 1/4 of which concern the two months from April to May, this is not a negligible amount. What is certain, however, is that the remaining tour operators have already launched into the battle with the aim of recovering existing reservations.
Crete, Naxos and Ios have the most beautiful beaches according to the Swiss
Regarding the messages for the current tourism year, addressing the APE-MPE and the former president of POX Grigoris Tassios, a few days before the development of FTI, he had emphasized that 2024 will move to the levels of 2023. In fact, he spoke of a freeze in reservations observed during this period, a consequence of the inflationary pressures faced by European households.
Indeed, Mr. Tassios believes that the two major sporting events of the summer, the Euro football and the Paris Olympic Games will have an impact on the travel of European households this year. It is estimated that many will travel by road near the countries where the games will take place, at the expense of air travel with tourist packages. In the meantime, unstable factors linked to climate change, it is possible to present disturbances in the areas where these will develop and everyone’s wish is that events like those in Rhodes last year do not happen again.
Currently, tour operators are scrutinizing the performance of Greece’s regions and are already rushing to conclude contracts with hoteliers for 2025, aiming to achieve low prices, as has been highlighted. Regardless, the next period will shed even more light on the development of tourism in Greece, which is so far developing at higher levels than last year.
Air arrivals in Greece increased by 12.3% between January and April 2024
Concretely, according to INSETE data, during the period January-April 2024, 3.1 million international air arrivals were recorded, exceeding the levels of January-April 2023, showing an increase of +12.3 %. Meanwhile, April began with a more moderate increase of 6%, with 1.5 million international air arrivals. With reference to the flagship regions of the first quarter of the year, all geographical units, with the exception of the Cyclades, have progressed. In particular, in the geographical unit of Crete, international air arrivals increased by 2.8% compared to last year, reaching 312 thousand.
Only the Cyclades moved with a drop in arrivals over the four months of 2024
International air arrivals at Dodecanese airports reached 208 thousand, an increase of 11.3%. In the geographical unit of the Ionian Islands, an increase of 10.4% was recorded while 111 thousand international air arrivals were recorded.
In the geographical unit of Peloponnese, international air arrivals reached 9 thousand, recording an increase of 14.8%. Regarding the Cyclades, there were 45 thousand international air arrivals, a decrease of 8.7%. Finally, regarding road arrivals during the period January-April 2024, these were recorded at 1.8 million international road arrivals, compared to 1.7 million during the period January-April 2023 , an increase of 5.1%.