Tourist Arrivals on Crete and Corfu Show Growth, GEPOET says

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Tourist arrivals on the Greek islands of Crete and Corfu are on the up this year, however sector professionals express concern over this year’s tourism earnings.

The General Panhellenic Federation of Tourism Enterprises (GEPOET) on Wednesday reported that tourist arrivals on Crete increased by 10 percent during the first four months of 2017 but expressed concern on whether the rise would increase revenues due to the existing large number of early booking discount offers.

Corfu, Ionian Sea

Having recently participated in the IMEX 2017 exhibition for incentive travel, meetings and events in Frankfurt, GEPOET’s first vice president Mihalis Vlatakis, also chairman of the Association of Cretan Travel & Tourism Agencies, said the interest for corporate travels in general was moderate, while the number of major commercial visitors was limited.

Regarding Corfu, GEPOET’s vice president and chairman of the Association of Corfu Travel Agents, Vasilis Kaloudis, said the Ionian island’s tourism numbers were positive during the first four months of the year, despite an 8 percent drop in bookings during Easter, compared to last year.

According to Kaloudis, a double digit increase in arrivals is expected for the island this summer and cruise tourism is seeing a positive trend similar to last year. In addition, the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland are expected to be Corfu’s main tourism markets for 2017.