German tourists are going off Greece
Online tourism bookings from abroad are pointing to a 12.5 percent decline for this year, according to the Airfasttickets travel agency.
Nikos Koklonis, head of the company that owns the agency, says that the biggest drop in bookings for Greek destinations this year is from the German market, which last year accounted for 15 percent of all bookings. Its share has now shrunk to just 3 percent.
Surprisingly, most bookings from abroad this year originate from Italy, followed by Britain, Spain, France and Austria. One in four clients the agency handles chooses Greece as its destination.
Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises president (SETE) Andreas Andreadis expects receipts from tourism to drop below 10 billion euros this year, after climbing to 10.5 billion in 2011.
