Industry Reports & Trends

Overnight stays in Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, recorded a 15.68 percent increase during the first half of 2014 compared to last year, the Thessaloniki Hotels Association said on 30 July.

Over a billion people traveled to another country last year. But where were they going and why? BBC News examines the facts about global travel using data from the UNWTO.

“As the world slowly pulls itself out of the recession, there may just be hope ahead for Greece,” the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) commented in a case study it released on the country this month.

Following the incident with the missing Malaysian MH370 plane, Chinese tourists have been diverting from their usual south-east Asia travels and looking for something different in the Mediterranean.

Last year was a good year for the travel and tourism industry in Greece despite the economic downturn, Euromonitor International said in its annual report on the country.

Health and wellness tourism in Greece posted a decline of 43 percent in current value terms in 2013, according to a recently released report that said the slump derived primarily from medical tourism.

Crete is one of Greece’s most attractive destinations as one in five tourists arrive in the country to vacation on the island, recent data has shown.

Hotel room occupancy in Athens, Greece, during the January-June period, increased from 55.2 percent last year to 68.3 percent this year, according to the Athens-Attica & Argosaronic Hotel Association.

The Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) has partnered with the Centre of Planning and Economic Research (KEPE) to carry out studies in regards to the tourism sector’s contribution to the Greek economy.

Hotel occupancy in Athens, Greece, last month rose by 19.9 percent, compared to last year, to 88.2 percent and reported the largest increase in Europe, according to STR Global.