COVID-19 Restarting Travel & Tourism in Greece

The Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO) is getting ready to run a campaign to promote Greece’s winter tourism destinations.

Tourist arrivals at the five international airports of the South Aegean stayed high throughout September, exceeding half a million.

Greece is taking hands-on action to extend the tourism season and open to tourists early next year, says Greek Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias.

On the occasion of World Tourism Day, key Greek tourism figures sent the message that the time has come for changes in order for the sector to face future challenges.

Russian travelers are choosing Greece as an autumn holiday destination, according to data by insurance company Rosgosstrakh.

A prescriptive computer program named EVA developed for Greece to identify asymptomatic, infected travelers may have slowed COVID-19’s spread through its borders, according to a study in the journal Nature.

Greek Tourism Minister Vasilis Kikilias has announced a four-pronged tourism strategy aimed at boosting Greece’s economy and stimulating growth.

Passenger traffic at Greek airports continued an upsurge for the second month in a row, according to data released for August 2021.

Greece’s tourism revenue this year has already reached half of 2019 earnings, which is a ‘pleasant surprise’, says HHF President Grigoris Tasios.

Greece is expected to have a very good tourism year in 2022, judging by this season’s performance, according to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Greece was the stand-out tourism destination in Europe this summer as it achieved some 86% of July and August 2019 arrivals.

Tourism in the South Aegean stayed on pace in August and topped the two million mark for visitor arrivals to the region this summer.

Grigoris Tasios, the president of the Hellenic Hoteliers Federation, says that he expects Greece to achieve 50 percent of 2019 tourism levels.

A number of destinations in Greece this summer welcomed thousands of Greeks that took advantage of the Tourism Ministry’s holiday subsidy program ‘Tourism for All’.

Greek tourism recovered significantly in summer 2021 but the Covid-19 risk still remains, as well as future negative effects of wildfires, according to Alpha Bank.

The South Aegean islands are playing a big part in Greece’s tourism success this year despite the unfavorable environment created by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Tourism and consumption are set to drive Greece’s GDP up by a rate of 13% in the 2nd quarter of the year, according to the National Bank of Greece.

Tourist demand for the South Aegean islands is robust but vigilance is required in view of Covid-19 developments, said the region’s governor George Hatzimarkos.

Despite Covid-19 restraints, travelers are still selecting Crete for their summer holidays, with August occupancy levels reaching almost 100 percent.

Greek tourism is reaching 2019 levels according to Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis, who also confirmed that Greece received more than 2 million tourists in July and August.