Air Arrivals Up, Hotel Bookings Down On Zakynthos

Photo © Panos Karas

The tourist season of the Greek island of Zakynthos seems to be off to a good start, as international arrivals were up by 15.3 percent in April 2014.

According to the president of the Laganas Hotel Association, Christina Tetradi, most tourists to Zakynthos Airport arrived from the United Kingdom via low cost easyJet flights and from Belgium, the Netherlands and Poland via charter flights launched by tour operators from 20 April and onwards.

In regards to domestic tourism, Ms. Tetradi informed that arrivals via Zakynthos Port were booming this year due to low passenger and car ferry ticket prices (30 euros for a family of four with a car on the Kylini-Zakynthos route).

Hotel Bookings Down

However, although more tourists arrived on Zakynthos in April, reservations at the island’s hotels did not show a corresponding rise.

Even though the island’s hoteliers announced special Easter packages it seems that most Greeks preferred to stay with relatives and friends. This led to hotel bookings on Zakynthos to drop by some 50 percent.

“Hotel bookings were rather disappointing for the Easter period,” Ms. Tetradi said.