Ernst Reichel, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Greece

Tourism brings Germans and Greeks together

Greece remains one of the top travel destinations for German tourists.

We are proud that Germany appears to be the pillar of Greek tourism, as the number of tourists from my country increased by more than 18 percent, to a record 4.4 million in 2018.

German tourists amounted to nearly 3 billion euros of income last year, or 16 percent of the year’s total. Tourism definitely helped Greece’s national effort during the crisis years and the number of foreign tourists coming to Greece in the last decade gives evidence to the success of the Greek tourism industry.

…Tourism definitely helped Greece’s national effort during the crisis years and the number of foreign tourists coming to Greece in the last decade gives evidence to the success of the Greek tourism industry…

Ernst Reichel, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Greece

My compatriots like to travel to Greece throughout the year, not only during the summer months. This is due to the beauty of the country and the multitude of attractive tourist destinations.

For this reason, I am convinced that the season extension in Greece could be one cornerstone for further development and growth.

Another important sector for the future is health tourism with the valorization of natural remedies, especially thermal springs. German companies are interested in investing in this area.

Very recently, Greece, like other tourism destinations, was confronted with the collapse of Thomas Cook.

While economic losses are inevitable, important other players, including Europe´s largest holiday operator TUI, has made very clear that they see a good reason to be faithful to Greece and are even willing to expand their business.

One explanation I see is the honorable and correct way in which the crisis was handled by the vast majority of hotel owners in this country.

The Greek word “philotimo” fits here very well …

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