All airports report a major rise in visitors
The major increase in air arrivals from abroad this year continued in August, provisional data from the country’s airports show, confirming that this will be a record year for Greek tourism.
Athens has done especially well, as the increase in foreign visitors to the country’s main airport in the period from January to August reached 550,000 from the first eight months of last year.
On Corfu, air arrivals last month grew 15.8 percent year-on-year to reach 247,158, including an 18.5 percent rise in Russian visitors despite the general downward trend in tourism from Russia.
Arrivals at Cephalonia’s airport rose by 13.1 percent from August 2013 to reach 51,041, and visitors were clearly not put off the destination by the earthquakes last January. More than half of the island’s visitors were from Britain (29,179), which saw 11.5 percent more tourists traveling to Cephalonia this August compared with last year. The overall annual growth during the first eight months of the year amounted to almost 7 percent.
Zakynthos enjoyed an 18.3 percent increase to 144,462 foreign arrivals and Rhodes reported a 5.8 percent increase to 411,300 visitors from abroad, while domestic arrivals rose by 22.1 percent to 40,669. Foreign arrivals at Iraklio on Crete increased by 8 percent, amounting to 584,000.
