Arrivals soar at Athens, Santorini
Athens and Santorini were the fastest-growing Greek tourism destinations in 2015, as data released by the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE) on Monday showed that the biggest annual increases in airport arrivals in the country were recorded at Athens International Airport (22.9 percent) and Santorini Airport (17.7 percent) in the year to end-November.
In total, air arrivals in Greece in the January-November period expanded by 5.7 percent from last year to reach 15.25 million. Notably, if the AIA data are excluded, the increase at regional airports amounted to 0.7 percent year-on-year.
The major growth seen at the start of the year around the country diminished as a result of economic and political developments that affected the country’s image abroad. Certain destinations also suffered due to increased refugee flows, as international arrivals to the Dodecanese islands shrank by 2 percent and to Crete by 0.8 percent.
In November alone the annual increase in arrivals at the country’s airports averaged out at 3.6 percent exclusively thanks to the outstanding 11.3 percent rise at Athens Airport. Excluding AIA, arrivals dropped 11.5 percent from November 2014.
