German tourist arrivals are heading for a new record in Greece during 2018, according to a GfK survey data conducted on behalf of the German Travel Association DRV.
Following the impressive 30% rise in German arrivals last year, the estimate by GfK’s analysts is that this summer a strong double-digit growth will be attained.
As Reuters notes in the following report, summer bookings to Greece by German holidaymakers were 40 percent higher than a year ago by the end of January, helping the country overtake the Balearic islands as Germans’ most popular holiday destination, Doerte Nordbeck, head of Travel & Logistics Germany at German market researcher GfK, told journalists at a news conference on Wednesday, ahead of the world’s biggest travel fair in Berlin next week.
She cited booking data from travel agencies and online portals and, at the same time, confirmed that even though Germans’ summer bookings for Turkey have doubled, they are still far from the levels seen a few years ago.
Tourists, a major source of financing for Turkey’s wide current account deficit, are starting to return to the country after attacks blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants and an attempted coup scared them away during the last couple of years.
Bookings for Turkey from Germany for summer 2018 were up 101% at the end of January from a year ago, but their volume was still only about half of that for Greece, reversing the pattern seen a few years ago.
“But if we assume that nothing further happens to keep people away, then Turkey should return to former strength in a year or two,” Nordbeck added.
Norbert Fiebig, president of German travel association DRV, noted that holidaymakers were returning to Turkey because the security situation and political tension appeared to be easing and it was more affordable than comparable destinations.
“In Turkey they can get an all-inclusive holiday in a five-star hotel for a price at which they would have trouble finding something with three or four stars in Spain,” he pointed out.
Europe’s largest travel group TUI commented this month, when asked about the effect of recovering bookings for Turkey on margins, that the focus there was currently on building volume.
Overall, Spain remains the most popular destination for Germans remains in 2018.
The Canary Islands and the Spanish hinterland recorded small increases in 2017 while the Balearics were down.
In total, more than one in four dollars spent by Germans for holidays are headed to Spain, according to GfK estimates for 2017.
Bookings for Spain in 2018 show an increase of over 4%, with Canaries at +7% and Balearic Islands at +3%.
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According to DRV, tour operators’ revenue increased by 8% in 2017 reaching 33,7 billion.
In the traditional travel agency market, growth was in the order of 1.2 billion euros to 26.4 billion euros.
During 2017, the drop in demand for Turkey contributed to the increase in bookings for Greece and Spain.
Last year, the Germans spend 64.7 billion euros on their holidays, 8.2% more than in the previous year .
RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
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