Greece replaces Turkey as Germans’ second choice for holidays
Summer bookings to Turkey by German holidaymakers are down by more than half after a spate of bombings, with tourists instead heading to Greece and Egypt, according to German market researcher GfK.
Tourism, which adds about $30 billion to Turkey’s gross domestic product each year, has been hammered by attacks blamed on Islamic State and Kurdish militants that have scared away tourists over the past year.
Summer bookings from Germany to Turkey were down 58 percent at the end of January from a year earlier.
“Greece is clearly benefiting from that, and Egypt as well,” Doerte Nordbeck, head of Travel & Logistics Germany at GfK, told journalists at a news conference ahead of the world’s biggest travel fair in Berlin next week.
Germans’ summer bookings for Greece were 67 percent higher than a year ago by the end of January, and the country has now replaced Turkey as Germans’ second-most popular holiday destination after the Balearic islands, she said, citing booking data from travel agencies and online portals.
Tour operator TUI had said in January that it had added around 40 percent more capacity on the Greek islands of Crete, Rhodes and Kos to meet demand.
[Reuters]
