Greek Tourists Opt For Turkey

Turkey has emerged as one of the most popular tourism destinations abroad for Greeks, according to tourist arrival figures recently released by Turkey’s statistical office.

The released figures showed an increase of 5.88 percent in arrivals of Greek tourists to Turkey during the January-July 2009 period (329,909 Greeks traveled to Turkey against 309,694 Greeks during the same period last year).

In addition, during the same seven-month period last year there had also been an increase in arrivals of 41.5 percent over the same period in 2007 as the number of Greeks visiting Turkey was 218,809. In 2008, arrivals of Greeks in Turkey reached 572,212, a 27.7 percent increase compared to 2007 (447,950).

On the other hand, the arrivals of Turks to Greece produce a decrease. The latest available figures of arrivals up to 2007 by the Greek National Statistical Service showed that 161,858 Turks visited Greece in 2007 of which 24,816 traveled by air; 3,387 by rail; 34,412 by sea; and 99,243 by road. In 2006, however, 180,775 Turks had visited Greece.

In July, the Greek Tourism Ministry had announced plans to set up a Greek National Tourism Organization office in Istanbul to promote Greek tourism and provide information to Turkish citizens and investors.