Greece to Hit 2015 Tourism Goal of 26 Million Int’l Arrivals

Greek tourism is on track to end 2015 with a record of 26 million international arrivals, the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) said on Monday after reviewing November figures released by the country’s main airports.

According to the recent data, the number of international tourist arrivals in Greece registered a positive growth during the first 11 months of the year.

International air arrivals increased by 5.7 percent to over 15 million during the January-November 2015 period, which corresponds to nearly 820,000 additional arrivals compared to the same period of 2014.

Last month, Athens saw a double-digit increase with arrival numbers up by 11.3 percent compared with November 2014. In the first 11 months of the year, the Greek capital saw arrivals up by 23.6 percent.

The Cyclades island complex maintained its arrival growth rate of 15 percent over the first eleven months of 2014.

On the other hand, the Dodecanese and Crete continued to record a slight drop in arrivals by 2 percent and 0.8 percent respectively, compared with the same period of 2014.

The data showed that the whole country — not including Athens — moved on an 11 percent negative rate in terms of foreign arrivals by air compared to November 2014 and a marginal growth rate of 0.7 percent compared with the first eleven months of 2014.