Germany’s Second-largest Tour Operator Sees Rise in Demand for Greece

Despite negative headlines, demand has remained strong for Greece, according to Germany’s second-largest tour operator DER Touristik.

In statements made to German travel trade publication fvw on Thursday, DER Touristik’s COO, René Herzog, said that demand for Greece is recording a 21 percent rise.

However, at the moment, DER Touristik’s rise in bookings to Greece may be an exception since fvw also revealed on Thursday that only 20% of German travel agents predict that they will see rising sales in the coming months while most expect stable sales, possibly due to factors such as the crises in Tunisia and Greece.

According to the survey, carried out by Dr Fried + Partner for fvw, just one third of agents describe their current sales situation as good compared to 40% in early June.

It is also worth mentioning that on January 9, before Greece and eurozone leaders came to an agreement on a three-year bailout and while interest in late bookings to the country was weakening, Germany’s last-minute holidays specialist L’Tur informed fvw that it had higher bookings for Greece than last year and that it had added capacity in Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Corfu and Thessaloniki for attractively-priced deals.

According to fvw, L’Tur is now planning a major “Yes to Greece” advertising campaign to support sales further.

fvw is a leading source of information on German travel trade news.