January-July Arrivals On The Up

Prior to the three-week taxi strike, Greece saw an increase in international arrivals by 9.95 percent compared to last year, according to data compiled by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) from 13 of Greece’s major airports for the January-July 2011 period.

For the first seven months of the year arrivals amounted to 6,458,612 tourists, up from 5,874,144 in 2010.

In July alone arrivals increased by 11.05 percent compared to last year, which amounted to 2,249,922 tourists.

Arrivals from abroad increased in July compared to the same month last year at airports on Rodos by 21.06 percent, Kos by 20.23 percent, Heraklio by 13.44 percent, Thessaloniki by 12.36 percent, Kerkyra by 8.96 percent, Chania by 9.57 percent and Zakynthos by 8.54 percent.

However, Athens International Airport was the only airport in July to show a decline in arrivals (0.48 percent). SETE’s data showed that for the first seven months of the year, arrivals at Athens’ airport dropped by 2.74 percent.