International travelers flocking to Greece, data shows
The Greek tourism industry observed a significant increase in international arrivals in July Kathimerini understands. Data collected at seven local airports pointed to an 11.7 percent increase in overall tourist arrivals, meaning that 1.65 million people entered the country compared to 1.47 million travelers the same time last year.
On Crete arrivals at the island’s Hania airport were up 14.4 percent reaching 171.537 visitors, while at Iraklio airport the increase observed rose to 13.9 percent to reach 522.397 visitors.
On the Ionian island of Zakynthos visitors were up by 12.8 percent to reach 118.397 travelers, while on the eastern Aegean island of Kos the figures showed an increase of 11.5 percent, pointing to 205.421 travelers.
On Kefallonia in the Ionian Sea tourists were up by 11.2 percent reaching 45.284 people, while on Dodecanese Rhodes arrivals showed a 9.2 percent increase to reach 378.380 travelers. At the same time on Corfu the figures pointed to an 8 percent increase in travelers translating into 220.786 tourists.
In some cases July 2013 arrivals surpassed those observed in the same month back in 2011, which was deemed a particularly good year for the Greek sector.
A significant portion of the increase in July arrivals stemmed from Russia. This was expected to have a positive impact on tourism revenues given that the average spending of Russian travelers is far higher than the general average.
On Zakynthos the rate of arrivals from Russia was up by 147.9 percent in July compared to last year’s figures, while on Rhodes the figure stood at 57.5 percent.
Professionals expected more good news for the industry following the collection of data recording arrivals by land from Balkan countries as well as Turkey.
