Industry Reports & Trends

Athens was visited by more than 15 million tourists last year, which represents an increase of more than 20 percent, Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni said on Wednesday.

In the first 11 months of 2014, travel spending in Greece reached 13.3 billion euros, up by 10.8 percent year-on-year, according to data released today by the Bank of Greece.

Travel agents are reporting an increase in bookings for longer cruises, a recent survey of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) revealed.

To provide a snapshot of some of the ways that airports are communicating with their passengers, the European trade association for airports released the ACI EUROPE Digital Report 2014-2015.

An increased number of international arrivals to Greece boosted tourism revenue for the first nine months of 2014 to 12 billion euros, the central bank said last week.

International visitor arrivals to Greece’s main airports surged 15.4 percent to 14.5 million during the January-December 2014 period, according to processed data released by the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).

Based on early bookings of British holidaymakers, Greece is among the most popular destinations for the coming year, the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) revealed today.

Greece has been listed among the top three most popular destinations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), in the Pacific World Destination Index for December 2014.

With Greece estimated to have finally returned to economic growth in 2014, the outlook for 2015-2018 is looking relatively positive, according to Business Monitor International’s (BMI) Greece Q1 2015 Tourism Report.

A possible Value Added Tax (VAT) increase on hotels in Greece, from the current 6.5 percent to 13 percent, would be “catastrophic” for the country’s economy and employment sector, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).