Study: Tourists Trust Greece but Reluctant to Travel

Tourists may be eager to start traveling again and keen on visiting Greece but the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is still hampering their plans with the majority reluctant to do so, a study released this week by Kathimerini reveals.

Carried out on a sample of 3,000 people in the US, UK, Germany, France and Italy – all source markets for Greece – on June 25 by Athens-based tourism marketing company Mindhaus in collaboration with Pollfish research, the study found that though the majority trust Greece with regard to Covid-19 management, only one in four plan to visit before September citing fear of getting Covid-19 and the increased inconvenience of traveling.

More specifically:

• 70.9 percent of those polled said they want to travel abroad, up by 4.4 percent from 66 percent found in the first study conducted on May 13-14,
• 24.7 percent said they consider it more likely to make an international leisure trip within the next quarter (July – September) and an additional 32.9 percent from October to the end of the year,
• 63.9 percent consider Greece to be among the most attractive destinations in the Mediterranean for trips in June-August 2020 with two in three participants saying Greece handled the Covid crisis effectively. Up by 9.9 percent compared to the previous study in May,
• Compared to the May study, intention to visit Greece on their next trip increased by 20.37 percent for the French market (13.59 percent of responses), 9.76 percent for the US market (11.25 percent of responses),  9.21 percent for the German market (12.93 percent of responses), and 5.86 percent for the UK market (12.1 percent of responses).

According to the study, the different phases of Covid-19 development in different countries, the lack of a unified approach in the EU with regard to travel and Covid-19, as well as no vaccine are bound to keep demand low until the end of 2020.

“It is clear that this year will be extremely difficult for Greek tourism, with success now considered to be achieving 15 percent of revenue compared to last year,” said Theofilos Kyratsoulis, general manager Mindhaus.

“The desire for leisure travel and Greece’s enhanced position can hardly be translated into demand as long as the pandemic is in progress, travel restrictions have not been completely lifted, and competition is pressing,” he added.