This year, the first signs concerning Greece’s foreign visitor numbers are not positive. A withdraw from 2018’s record 33 million tourists and 16 billion Euros in tourism revenues is most likely.
Although it might be too early to arrive at any safe conclusion about the course of tourism in 2019, provisional data on airline seat planning for flights to Greece for the rest of the year showed a decline last month when compared to January 2018. This means that the carriers flying tourists to Greece are adjusting to demand and reducing their seat availability from last year.
This is in spite of the fact that passenger traffic in January continued to increase at Greece’s airports at a rate of about 10 percent year-on-year. This increase is due to Greece’s growing popularity as a city break destination, to the normal operation of Thessaloniki’s Makedonia Airport and to the general impetus of Greek tourism in the last few years.
In the 14 regional airports (including Makedonia) that Fraport Greece operates, total traffic, both domestic and international, increased by 12.3 percent year-on-year last month. Athens International Airport witnessed an 8.5 percent advance.
The lower number of seats available this year means that the situation is likely to change this summer.
Tags: foreign visitor, greece
