Greece remains a safe destination in the perception of potential visitors, however, this sense has deteriorated noticeably in the last quarter because of the refugee/migrant problem, which is becoming a key inhibitor for the final decision of tourists.
This conclusion emerges from the online concept survey regarding the image of Greece in the markets of Great Britain, Germany and the USA, conducted by British company Censuswide for Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) Intelligence on a total sample of 3046 respondents who have visited or are considering to visit our country.
The question concerned whether the refugee/immigrant issue has influenced the perception of respondents about traveling to Greece, Spain, Italy, France, Croatia and Turkey.
Travelling perception
Regarding the migration/refugee crisis, 52 percent of German respondents confesssed that it affects their travelling perception of Greece, compared to 46 percent of respondents interviewed in the previous survey.
Furthermore, the survey recorded a 16 percent increase in potential UK travellers that disclosed the migration/refugee crisis affects their travelling perception of Greece (55 percent of travellers compared with 39 percent of respondents in the previoussurvey).
The migration/refugee crisis has also affected the US market in relation to travel to Greece during the past three months(31 percent of Americans answered the crisis affects their travelling perception of Greece against 28 percent of respondents in the first survey).
In conclusion, the study stressed the need for the government to deal “promptly and effectively” with the challenges of the migration/refugee issue as the tourism season has already begun.
International Refugee Conference
Introducing the above findings to the International Refugee Conference, organised by the Economic and Social Council of Greece (OKE) the Senior Vice President of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) Mr. Giannis Retsos, stressed:
“The government by all means must ensure that the daily life of local communities will not deteriorate, the economy and employment will not be hit and the operation of tourism enterprises and the quality of the tourist services will not be affected, regardless of any additional effects that may occur to Greece’s image, arrivals and state revenue.”
SETE’s President Andreas Andreadis also posted the following infographic from the Census April survey on twitter. According to its data, the attractiveness of Italy, Spain, France and Croatia has increased while the attractiveness of Greece, Turkey, Egypt has fallen.
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
