Industry Reports & Trends

The Athens Tourism and Economic Development Company, in the context of the creation of a ‘tourism observatory’ for the City of Athens, conducted a study entitled ‘Registered Athens Tourism Study—from pre-Olympic to the post-Olympic period: The influence of the Olympic Games and the current situation, strategic priorities, prospects, challenges and future actions for the next 5 years (2008 -2012).’

A report was recently released in regards to the effects the Athens 2004 Olympic Games had on the hotels of the Greek capital.

Greek tourists prefer to travel abroad rather than spend their holidays at home as they consider Greece too expensive as opposed to competing tourist destinations.

According to a recent study conducted by the Observatory for the Greek Information Society in regards to the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) by the tourist industry, large tourism companies show a positive attitude towards new technologies but there is still room for improvement.

Greece has picked up its pace in regards to on-line booking as 35 percent of reservations have been settled via the Internet, while the European average is approximately 60 percent.

Despite the fare increase, passenger traffic from Piraeus port showed an increase in June against the same month last year.

Consumer organization EKPOIZO recently discovered that advertized airline tickets have serious price variations, some which reached up to 63 percent between the advertized on-line cost and the actual charge.

Museum visits in Greece dropped during the first four months of the year, according to recent figures released by the General Secretariat for the National Statistical Service of Greece.

Tourism Minister Aris Spiliotopoulos called a press conference recently and expressed his conclusions on Greek tourism and his optimism in regards to the current image Greece has within the sector.

Tourist spending appeared relatively low in Greece for 2007 when compared with 2004. According to a recent report released by the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises, the average spending of tourists per capita in 2004 was 882 euros. In 2007 this number dropped to 748 euros.