Greece: Autumn 2016 Tourism Performance Reduces Seasonality

Greece’s increased tourist arrivals during the autumn months indicate a reduction in the country’s seasonality, SETE Intelligence said in its December 2016 statistical bulletin on Greek tourism. SETE Intelligence is the Greek Tourism Confederation’s research unit.

Citing October data from the Bank of Greece, SETE Intelligence noted that Greece saw a strong growth in tourist arrivals during the months of September (+13.7 percent) and October (+17.3 percent), which resulted to a “reduced seasonality”.

Moreover, during the first 11 months of the year, arrivals at Greek airports increased by 8.9 percent (or 556,000 passengers) to 16.6 million arrivals, compared to 2015. In November alone, international air arrivals to Greece increased by 13.4 percent, compared to the same month last year. The arrivals were recorded mainly at the airports of Athens and Thessaloniki (+13.5 percent and +15.1 percent respectively)

SETE Intelligence also underlined the positive development regarding road arrivals to Greece, which saw an 11.3 percent increase in November.

“With this third consecutive monthly increase, the losses of the previous months are covered and so road arrivals for 2016 are marginally higher (+ 0.3 percent) compared to 2015”, SETE Intelligence noted in its bulletin.

Extending the tourism season and attracting visitors 365 days a year is a main priority of the Greek Tourism Ministry.

SETE Intelligence sees positive signs for Greek tourism in 2017, but also listed factors that can reverse this outlook: economic factors (exchange rate of the pound and/or the euro, reactions of the economies to the policies of new US President and developments regarding Greece’s third bailout deal) and geopolitical factors (the refugee-migrant crisis, developments in the Middle East and the impact of the policies of new US President over Europe, Russia and China).