Industry Reports & Trends

Inspections to tourism enterprises throughout Greece more than doubled this year by Greek National Tourism Organization representatives the Tourism Ministry said last month.

Greek shipowners have invested more than $2.3 billion for the purchase of 118 ships for the January-August 2009 period and are considered the biggest spenders on ships in the world, according to data released by Allied Shipbroking firm.

Athens may not be among the most expensive cities in the world but it is a middle-ranking one, according to the recent study “Prices and Earnings-2009 edition” published by Swiss banking group UBS. The study compared the purchasing power of citizens in 73 cities around the globe.

Foreign arrivals at Greek airports fell nine percent year-on-year in August while the number of foreign visitors in Greece dropped 8.5 percent in the first eight months of the year, the Research Institute for Tourism and Forecasts (ITEP) recently said. The institute sees airport arrivals falling 10 percent in 2009 and hotel sector revenues down 16-18 percent in the same period.

The number of foreign tourists that arrived at Greek airports fell to eight percent in the January-July period down from 9.6 percent recorded during the first six months of the year, according to the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) recently announced that international air passenger traffic fell by 7.2 percent in June when compared to the same month in 2008. However, the drop in international passenger demand was a slight improvement on the 9.3 percent fall in May.

Tourism revenue dropped 14.7 percent in the January-June period against the same period in 2008 as foreign visitors spent some 3.1 billion euros, the Bank of Greece recently announced. In June receipts were down 10.4 percent to 1.39 billion euros.

New opportunities that will revolutionize the business profile of Greek tourism enterprises are rising through the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs), according to a recent study by the Observatory for the Greek Information Society.

The Greek cruise industry must be liberated from the cabotage law that forbids non-European Union flag cruise ships to use Greek harbors as homeports, according to recently released official figures. The figures are in regards to the number of tourists that arrived in Piraeus by cruise ship for the first five months of the year.

Despite the fears of the global economic crisis it seems that this summer is produced better results than 2008 for Greek shipping or at least for many companies that continue to operate efficiently, said the Ministry of Mercantile Marine, The Aegean and Island Policy.