Thessaloniki Loses Greek Visitors In 2012

Greek overnights continued to plunge last year in Thessaloniki due to the strong impact of the economic crisis on consumers and dropped 11,57 percent, according to recent figures of the Thessaloniki Hotels Association.

In 2012, Thessaloniki welcomed 51.28 percent Greek visitors and 48.72 percent foreign visitors, while in 2011 the ratio was 59.04 percent and 40.96 percent respectively.

2013 Bookings

The picture for Thessaloniki’s tourism this year is unclear at the moment, according to statements of the association’s president, Aristotelis Thomopoulos.

He told the Greek press that the Northern Greek city is not following the same upward trend of early bookings for this season noticed in the rest of the country.

Already for the first two months of 2013, overnight stays in hotels in Thessaloniki recorded an 18 percent drop.

Mr. Thomopoulos said the downward trend of bookings of Greek visitors was expected to continue this year while an increase is expected from the Russian and Turkish markets.

Thessaloniki’s Top 10 foreign overnights in 2012

Libyan visitors topped the list of overnight in Thessaloniki last year as 146,937 overnights were recorded in the first six months of 2012 (a 662,87 percent increase compared to 2011). However, the association clarified this as an “ad hoc case” that came along with “the well-known problems.”

Cypriots came in second place with 71,799 overnights (a 26.47 percent increase compared with 2011), followed by Russians (59,248 overnights, up 50.05 percent), Turks (46,790 overnights, up 27.74 percent) and Italians (43.321 overnights, down 7.86 percent).

American visitors came in sixth place with 40,278 overnights in Thessaloniki, a drop of 4.48 percent.

Although Israeli visitors were at the top of the list of foreign overnights in Thessaloniki in 2011, last year they dropped to the seventh place with 39,387 overnights (33.31 percent decrease).

Bulgarian visitors came in eighth (36.283 overnights, a 7.46 increase compared to 2011) and were followed by the Germans (34.569 overnights, a 5.23 percent drop compared to 2011) and Serbians (27.612 overnight, a 15.62 percent drop compared to 2011).