Foreign Arrivals To Greece Drop

International arrivals at major airports of Greece for the first five months of 2009 showed a decrease of 8.85 percent over the same period of 2008, the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises recently announced.

The association, in reference to data released by Athens International Airport Eleftherios Venizelos said that arrivals decreased by 10.45 percent during the January-May 2009 period over the same period of 2008.

Also, for the same period foreign arrivals (Greek and foreign passengers) to Thessaloniki’s Macedonia Airport decreased by 6.69 percent as they stood at 363,154 against 389,190 in 2008.

During May arrivals had fallen in both Thessaloniki and Athens to 14.69 percent and 12 percent respectively when compared with 2008.

However, the crisis did not seem to have an affect on Easter holidaymakers as in April arrivals increased by 13.98 in Thessaloniki and Athens by 8.85 percent compared with 2008 and reached 95,939 and 254,264 respectively.

In addition, the Research Institute for Tourism and Forecasts (ITEP) recently released figures for the first four months of 2009. International arrivals showed a 7.3 percent drop.