Rhodes leads arrivals rise
Rhodes Airport posted the biggest year-on-year increase in arrivals from abroad in the January-May period, reaching 36.1 percent, but the general picture in Greece is falling short of expectations for tourism growth this year.
Data processed by the Association of Greek Tourist Enterprises (SETE) showed the annual increase in the year?s first five months to be just 4.5 percent as far as international arrivals in the country?s main airports are concerned.
Despite a major increase in regional airports, the rather small growth is attributed to the decline seen at Athens International Airport, which reached 6.7 percent in the same period compared with that in 2010.
Arrivals came to 2,405,030 this year to May, up from 2,300,959 last year.
Besides Rhodes, there was a significant increase in arrivals for Kos (up 27.7 percent), Iraklio (12.1 percent) and Cephalonia (10.8 percent). Forecasts had estimated a 10 percent rise in arrivals for the whole of the year.
