Industry Reports & Trends

Travel agents may not be doing their job as well as they should, according to a recent study from the Center for Infectious Disease Control at the State General Hospital.

Athens International Airport’s “Eleftherios Venizelos” was recently voted the best and safest airport of its kind in Europe and the second best in the world, according to an independent survey carried out by the Global Airport Monitor of the International Air Transportation Association.

Local hoteliers refuse to go out on a limb and suggest they experience anything close to optimism for 2004, but there was a slight optimistic tingle with the release of April’s overnight statistics, which came on the heels of disappointing first-quarter.

Studies released last month by the Tourism Research Institute place Greece’s tourism sector in a precarious position. Its annual study, which forecasts this year’s tourism flow and analyzes last year’s results, found Greece was far behind its competitors. Last year, Greece saw its tourism revenue drop by 8.3% while competing destinations posted minor or substantial increases. The only exception was Italy, which saw its tourism revenue drop by 2.7%.

When compared with last year, the drop in tourism arrivals this year is expected to reach anywhere between less than 1% to as high as 10%. It all depends on whom you listen to. Tourism revenue, again according to whom you listen to, will drop from 5% to as high as 15% against last year.

The majority of Greek Internet sites are in the early stages of development concerning electronic tourism, said Dr. Dimitrios Buhalis of the University of Surrey during a seminar held last month in Athens. The seminar analyzed a recent study done by the speaker where 348 Greek tourism web sites were evaluated.

On average, Athens area hotels so far have kept overnights at last year’s level and look forward to a good summer. Not so with hotels outside the area. This season’s holiday bookings are down 15 to 20% against last year, according to reports from Hellenic Tourism Organization offices abroad.

Hoteliers that count on a substantial rise in domestic travel this year because of the Games may be disappointed. According to research released last month by Greece’s major consumer protection group, at least one in three Greeks has no intention of taking the traditional summer holiday this year, mainly to save money.

Greece’s tourism professionals are not in the least optimistic about the future of the country’s main currency-earning industry thus crushing earlier hopes that 2004, being the country’s Olympic year, would provide the much-needed shot in the arm to the sector.

Overnights in the Athens area dropped an average drop of 11.5% last year when compared with 2002, according to statistics released last month by the Attica Hoteliers’ Association. The association says the drop is phenomenal considering it took place the year prior to Athens holding the Olympic Games.