Greece continues to be listed amongst the top five favourite destinations for European travellers for the first half of this year, despite the fact that it has slipped one place compared to last year’s position, reveals the latest survey by Mindhaus for the European Travel Commission, the association of European Tourism Organisation.
The same shows that Greece has slipped from last year, behind Italy, Spain, France as well as Germany, while Croatia has been placed in the sixth position, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Even though the Hellenic Republic has been positioned in fourth place in specific markets such as for travellers from Britain and France, it has dropped out of the top five for the Germans, Italians, Belgians, Polish as well as Austrians according to Ekathmerini.
The Director of Mindhaus, Theofilos Kyratsoulis, has stressed that the Hellenic Republic cannot be complacent.
Authorities in the Hellenic Republic have managed to welcome a large number of international visitors, despite the current situation caused by the spread of the Coronavirus and its new strains.
Recently, the Hellenic Republic’s Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias, announced that Greece would officially start welcoming international travellers starting from next month, March 1.
The Minister stressed that the way Greece handled the COVID-19 situation was essential.
“The way we handled the pandemic was so important that while all the other Mediterranean countries were closed in 2020, we opened up. And last year, when everyone believed that revenues from Tourism would be 5-6 billion euros, they reached 10.5 to 11 billion euros. A huge contribution to the Greek economy and trade,” Kikilias stressed in this regard.
Despite the spread of the Coronavirus’ Omicron variant that has affected a large number of countries, the tourism minister also stressed that the country is attempting to reach pre-pandemic levels during this year.
In order to ease the travel process amid the ongoing pandemic situation, authorities in the Hellenic Republic previously announced that they decided to abolish the testing requirement for travellers who hold a valid EU COVID certificate and plan to visit Greece
“Greek tourism has shown remarkable resilience in the past two years, sending a strong message of security to travellers in our country, and it will do the same this year,” Kikilias pointed out in this regard.
Recently, a report conducted by Greece Tourism Confederation (SETE) revealed that citizens from Germany, Britain, and the United States accounted as top spenders in Greece in 2019, before the spread of the Coronavirus.
