Occupancy rates reaching averaging 80% this week and tourist destinations, with the positive streak of August in arrivals and bookings to continue.
As reported by hotel businessmen, until August 22, most units are fully booked, both by foreign and Greek tourists, while there is a dynamic reservations that lasts at least until the first half of September.
From the industry players there is satisfaction with the development of travel figures this month, which has been much better than initial expectations, and for tourism businesses it has been the “relief” in order to cover the huge financial losses left by the pandemic. And it is considered that at the end of the season, if there is no turnaround in the health aspect, we will be able to reach the target of 50% of tourism revenues in 2019 (18.2 billion euros).
“The course of tourism, from June to date, is developing according to the most positive scenario. Our main concern now, must be to continue operating September-October and beyond. This can only be done by adhering to measures and increasing vaccinations,” noted in a post on social media the president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, Yannis Retsos.
August performance so far
According to the latest data from Eurocontrol, the European aviation safety agency, Athens International Airport is among the ten airports that handled the most arrivals and departures per day on average between August 5 and 11. In particular, “Eleftherios Venizelos” has the second smallest drop in the number of flights compared to the same period in 2019, of 15%, while some of the most important hubs in Europe, such as Frankfurt, Madrid, Paris airport and Amsterdam airports, recorded a drop of between 28 and 37%.
Also according to travel data measurement company OAG, although seats on flights scheduled in August in Europe are down 31% compared to the same month in 2019, seats on routes to Greece are up 2%.
It is noted that the number of seats scheduled on inbound international flights in the week from 16 to 22 August reaches 841 thousand – the highest number since the beginning of this tourist season.
At the same time, according to data from Fraport Greece, which manages the 14 largest airports outside Athens, in the seven-month period the total number of passengers handled reached 6,015,197 from 3,090,390 in the same period of 2020, representing an increase of 94.6%.