Tourism recovering in Greece

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

Greece witnessed revenue from its principal tourist industry in the eight months till August reach half of 2019 levels, said the country’s tourism minister.

With COVID-19 bringing global travel to a standstill, Greek tourism, which accounts for about a fifth of the economy, suffered its worst year till now in 2020 with just 7 million visitors fetching revenue of 4 billion euros.

However, with the Mediterranean tourist hotspot reopening its doors to foreign travelers in May, government and industry officials said that they are hoping for 40-50% of 2019 revenue which saw 33 million visitors fetching record 18 billion euros revenue.

“From January up to August, arrivals were up by 79.2% and corresponding receipts (rose) by 135.7% compared to the same period in 2020, which corresponds to 50% of receipts for 2019 as a whole,” said Greek tourism ministerVassilisKikilias.

“We are on track to achieve receipts of more than 10 billion euros,” he added.

After Greece dissolved most of its pandemic-related restrictions before its peak summer tourist season, a growing number of foreign visitors visited the country this summer.

“We have not counted final takings yet,” Kikilias said, adding that September, October and November were truly busy months.

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