Bloomberg: Greece now awaits the tourists Turkey is losing

According to a recent Bloomberg article, the Greek Tourism Confederation expects the number of visitors to rise to a record 25 million this year and bring 800 million euros ($897 million) of extra income, Andreas Andreadis, president of the industry lobby group, said in an interview in Athens on Tuesday. Separately on the same day, Turkey’s Culture and Tourism Ministry reported a 10 percent drop in year-on-year arrivals last month, the most in a decade.

The article notes that Andreadis said he expects as many as 900,000 Russians to arrive in Greece and they will account for about half the increase in revenue. The refugee flow meanwhile has turned into more of a trickle since countries to the north of Greece shut the transit corridor.

Rebound from late bookings

It also mentions that tourism has been one of the few industries that kept growing during the crisis, with numbers rising to a record 23.6 million people last year and adds:

“Its total contribution to the country’s gross domestic product was 18.5 percent, almost twice the European average, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council. Andreadis said the increase will boost GDP by an extra percentage point this year, with revenue rising to 15 billion euros from 14.2 billion euros in 2015.

Islands such as Kos in the eastern Aegean, which have been on the front line in the refugee crisis, will see a rebound from late bookings if the number of refugees landing on Greek shores keeps falling, Andreadis said.

Average daily arrivals to Greece dropped to 901 people in March, down from nearly 2,000 in February, according to the UN’s refugee agency. As well as the closing of the Balkan route, arrivals further declined following a deal between Turkish and European leaders for the return of irregular migrants making the crossing to Greece.”

Source: Bloomberg