No Increase in Arrivals from Greece’s Main Markets

Vassilis Minaidis, president of the Panhellenic Hoteliers Federation, is not overly optimistic for tourism to Greece this year. “At the very best, foreign arrivals to our country this year should increase by some 3-5%,” he says. This increase, however, is hardly enough to cover the losses compiled over the past four-year period.”

Haris Paloginnidis, the head of Pro-Tour, which organizes the tourism promotional activities for Rodos, is less optimistic. “According to data released recently by Nielson after a pan-European research project,” he says, “the conclusion drawn is that Greece will host about 4% less British tourists this year.

Concerning the German market, he says that tour operators appear to be holding their cards close to their chest as they are still awaiting a price war. “In any case,” he says, “it’s more than likely that we’ll see the same number of German arrivals as we did last year.”