More Greeks Traveling Abroad for the Holidays

Bookings for the holiday season are marking a 3-5 percent rise with all the more Greeks planning trips abroad, the President of the Federation of Hellenic Associations of Travel & Tourist Agencies (FedHatta), Lysandros Tsilidis, said this week.

Tsilidis told Greek daily Kathimerini that 30 percent of all organized tour packages on offer throughout the year by Greek travel agencies are booked during the Christmas and New Year’s holidays with London, Paris, Rome, Florence, Bansko, Vienna, Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, Budapest, Bucharest and Belgrade, among the top choices. He added that interest was returning for Egypt, Jordan, Dubai and Morocco.

Indicatively, according to the latest Bank of Greece data, travel spending by Greeks traveling abroad in the January-September period increased by 6.2 percent to 1.62 billion euros against 1.52 billion euros last year.

Despite a decline in the number of Greeks booking international trips due to financial restraints, Tsilidis says the last two years have seen a recovery in figures with Greek travel abroad now valued at 1.5 billion euros compared to 3.8 billion before the crisis.

Meanwhile, in efforts to boost tourism to Athens, Tsilidis said that FedHatta was preparing attractive holiday deals for the Greek capital to be promoted and sold abroad.