SETE Maintains Positive Outlook for Greek Tourism

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The outlook for Greek tourism in 2015 remains positive despite an air of uncertainty in the mind of the global public opinion regarding Greece created by much of the international media coverage of the January 25 elections, according to the president of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE), Andreas Andreadis.

“With the increase in quality of our products and services, and competitive prices that have been further improved by the recent devaluation of the euro and falling oil prices, we are confident that we will be in a position to reach, and even surpass, our targets in 2015,” Mr. Andreadis said in a statement on Monday.

SETE’s president underlined that the easing of pre-bookings towards the end of December – in large part due to reported Grexit fears – was outweighed by positive news from increased flight capacity planned for 2015 compared to 2014 for most Greek destinations and a very peaceful electoral process.

He added that the reduction of visitors from Russia last year, by less than 10 percent, did not stop Greece welcoming a record 21.5 million visitors in 2014 (up by 20 percent compared to 2013) –  to which an additional 2.5 million cruise ship arrivals can be added.

“We envisage, therefore, that the country will once again comfortably be among the leading 15 tourism destinations of the world, as measured by the UN’s World Tourism Organisation,” Mr. Andreadis said.