Professionals Cautious On 2011 Domestic Tourism

Tourism professionals appeared satisfied with bookings during the Athenian exodus of the 28 October weekend holiday when compared with those recorded in previous years for the same period, the Greek press said last month.

According to press reports, the increase in the number of hotel reservations this year during that period was mainly attributed to the fact that hoteliers dropped their prices.

However, professionals said the bulk of travelers recorded during the weekend of 28 October did not assure that domestic tourism would evolve as well for the rest of the season.

Domestic tourism is expected to be down this year by 20 percent compared to 2010 while the decline in revenue is expected to reach even higher levels.

On the other hand, incoming tourism is on a satisfying pace as Greece experienced a 7.16 percent increase in international arrivals in October (815,480 tourists) compared to last year.

According to data compiled by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) from 13 of Greece’s major airports, arrivals to Greece for the first 10 months of the year increased by 9.57 percent compared with the same period last year, amounting to 11,190,701 tourists, up from 10,213,518 in 2010.

On his part, Culture and Tourism Minister Pavlos Yeroulanos underlined in a recent interview that, in a period of two years, Greece experienced a 10 percent increase in visits and “broke all records of arrivals and revenue.”

Tourism professionals had said that tourism revenue is expected to grow over 12 percent from last year.