Greece Fourth Place On E.U. Preference List

Greece is the fourth most popular tourism destination in the European Union for 2010, according to the Eurobarometer survey on the attitudes of Europeans towards tourism that was released last month. Most popular destination is Spain, followed by Italy and France.

Specifically, in response to the question “Where do you intend to go on holiday in 2010,” 8.3 percent replied in Spain, 6.1 percent said Italy, 5.8 percent prefered France and 3.9 percent favored Greece.

According to Eurobarometer findings, this year 76 percent of Greeks plan to vacation domestically, while only two percent intend to visit Italy and Germany.

The survey also revealed that only nine percent of Greeks seek the assistance of a travel agency to organize their holidays as opposed to 23 percent of Europeans.

Furthermore, the survey included that 22 percent of Greeks, compared to 18 percent of Europeans in the “E.U. of the 27” said that in 2008 and 2009 they did not take a vacation for financial reasons.

Meanwhile, in 2009 Greece had reduced tourist traffic in 2009 higher than the European Union (E.U.) average, according to Eurostat data on tourism in the EU27.

In accordance with E.U. data, in 2009 the total nights spent in Greek hotels and similar establishments were 59.5 million, of which 42.6 million were non-residents (tourists) and 17 million were Greeks.

When compared to 2008, figures showed a decline of 7.3 percent in the number of nights spent at hotels, while the E.U. average was 5.1 percent.

The country that had the most overnights was Spain (251.1 million), followed by Italy (237.7 million) and France (191.2 million).