The opening of the Greek border with Bulgaria may create new data for Greek tourism in terms of tourist flows from the Balkan markets, something that has been pointed out by the entire tourism world of the country, however, the major thorn in the side of Northern Greece’s road tourism remains the gateway to Evros for Turkish visitors to our country.
As Andreas Mandrinos, president of the Thessaloniki Hoteliers Association, explains to Tornos News, the border station at Kipi Evros does anything but help the rapid passage of incoming tourists from the neighboring country. The six lanes from Turkey end up in two at the Greek border, with all that this entails for the smooth passage of Turkish visitors to our country.
The cycle of broken promises has been completed by many years of announcements, but nothing has been done yet, and the suffering continues, as it is emphasized. In fact, this is an absolutely necessary project, since Turks constitute the majority of visitors to Thessaloniki, notes Mr. Mandrinos, and the current situation is a brake on the further increase in visitors from Turkey.
Promises to complete the upgrade projects by summer
It is worth noting, however, that Konstantinos Gioulekas, Deputy Minister of the Interior, Head of the Macedonia and Thrace sector, during his speech at the 3rd forum of Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, said that by summer the upgrade of the border station at Kipi Evros, with a budget of 12.9 million euros, will be completed, which will add four new entry points into the country for heavy vehicles and cars and will put an end to the long queues, as promised.
Has the knot reached the comb, and the time has come for the promises to become a reality? The time is near.
It should be noted that based on the latest data from INSETE, the research tool of the Association of Greek Tourism Businesses, road arrivals in the period January- November 2024, the Kipoi station showed an increase of +231 thousand/+25.8%, with arrivals reaching 1.1 million.
Remaining in the field of incoming visitors to Thessaloniki, Mr. Mandrinos notes that the Israeli market is now recovering dynamically and is entering the top of the list of countries that are inflowing en masse. Of course, the top-5 of the main markets for Thessaloniki airport in 2024 are Germany, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Italy, and Poland.
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