Greece to buck tourism trend
Against the backdrop of an expected general decline in global tourism next year, Greece is hoping for record revenues from foreign visitors next year, according to sector professionals.
A recent survey by the world’s biggest travel website, Tripadvisor, showed that 61 percent of tourists internationally are planning to spend the same or less money in 2014 for traveling, while 85 percent said they would not be traveling abroad for their holidays.
However, the growing momentum of Greek tourism has local professionals aspiring to beat the 11.6-billion-euro record of revenues set in 2008. This year revenues are likely to reach up to 11.5 billion euros, up from 10 billion euros last year.
It is not only the increase in the number of arrivals that has contributed to the rise, but also the increase of tourism from countries that tend to have greater per capita spending on tourism, such as Russia and the USA.
