Travelers from Turkey Choose Alexandroupolis in 2019

The Northeastern Greece coastal town Alexandroupolis emerged as a favorite travel destination for visitors from neighboring Turkey, marking an 11 percent rise in 2019.

More than 755,000 Turk visitors – an additional 75,000 compared to 2018 figures – made their way to Alexandroupolis, some 40km from the border with Turkey, last year with 603,966 going through the Kipi border and 151,283 from Kastanies, according to the Federation of Commerce & Entrepreneurship of Thrace.

The federation’s president, Konstantinos Chatzimichail, expects a recovery in the number of road arrivals and is attributing the rise to the “stabilization and comeback of the Turkish economy in the second half of 2019… the relative stability of the Turkish lira, a 25 percent drop in inflation, and the gradual exit of the Turkish economy from recession”.

Referring to Greek travel to Turkey, Chatzimichail told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency that ” in the last three years, the number of Greek arrivals to Turkey appear to be recovering”.

According to 12-month federation data, the number of road arrivals by Turkish travelers were: January 2019 -22.32 percent against 2018, February -22.03 percent, March 16.55 percent, April -0.44 percent, May 0.54 percent, June 23.53 percent, July 3.88 percent, August 8.46 percent, September 14.59 percent, October 17.52 percent, November 86.37 percent, and December 23.29 percent.