CNBC Says Greece is the Word This Summer

Despite ongoing media reports focusing on Greece’s tightrope-styled political undertakings, American TV news channel CNBC focused instead last week on Greece as an ideal holiday destination in great part due to the friendlier exchange rate.

Under the title “Greek vacation anyone? Tourism set to boom”, reporter Holly Ellyatt looks at the reason Greece will be all the rage this summer citing in the meantime UN World Tourism Organization, World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) and CIA World Factbook 2014 data.

Key points to back a bright summer season ahead include the fact that 18 million international tourists arrived in Greece in 2013, travel and tourism contributed 28.3 billion euros to the Greek economy in 2013 (16.3 percent of GDP), set to rise by 3.0 percent in 2014 and by 3.7 percent per year to 41.8 billion euros (19.1 percent of GDP) in 2024. The service sector accounts for approximately 40 percent of the country’s GDP, while travel and tourism contributes 18.2 percent, or 657,000 jobs, in terms of total employment.

The CNBC report also spoke to the director of the Greek National Tourism Organization’s U.K. and Ireland office as well as hotel managers who were optimistic about the future of tourism in Greece, thanks to the involvement of young entrepreneurs doing business differently, innovative products and the dropping euro rate.