Revenues from tourism could be as high as 12 billion euros this year, Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias announced on Tuesday in an interview with state broadcaster ERT. He highlighted the fact that average spending per visitor appears to have increased by 20 pct, ANA reports.
The aim is for Greece to continue providing the excellent tourist experience it offers its visitors at high levels in autumn, possibly until early November, he added.
He stressed the importance of tourism for the Greek economy, noting that the revised forecasts for Greek economic indicators were largely linked to an increase in tourist arrivals. He said the tourism ministry’s role was developmental and economic and that “we return to citizens a dividend in the prosperity that tourism generates in the country.”
Kikilias spoke about actions to promote the tourism product of Evia after the recent devastating fires, saying this will include a two-million-euro boost to the tourism campaign. He also referred to the effort made so that flights from America will continue until the end of the tourism season.
The chief of the Panhellenic Hoteliers Federation, Grigoris Tassios proceeded with the prediction that the revenue target of 50% of those in 2019 “seems to have been met”.
At the same time, he confirmed that the epidemiological picture so far testifies that September will develop into a good month, especially in the case of Southern Greece, due to weather conditions.
In the same spirit, the president of the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE), Giannis Retsos, who according to a publication of the Financial Times, notes that “in May we said that if we managed to reach 40% of 2019 bookings, we would be very lucky. “Based on today’s data and after the September bookings, we will exceed 50% or even 60%, if there is no unexpected development regarding the pandemic”.
The honorary president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises and CEO of the Sani / Ikos group, Andreas Andreadis appears even more optimistic and talks about recovering 60% of the traffic and revenue of 2019.
As he pointed out in a relevant post on social networks, “the country’s tourism revenues could reach 12 billion euros this year, a number unthinkable a few months ago. In this case, the Greek GDP will increase by more than 6% “, he underlined characteristically.
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
