Greece Sees Growth in Int’l Tourist Arrivals, Reduction in Seasonality

Internationals tourist arrivals to Greece recorded a rise in November 2017, data released on Thursday by SETE Intelligence showed. Moreover, the data indicated that the seasonal pattern of Greece’s tourist arrivals showed signs of decrease.

According to SETE Intelligence’s statistical bulletin for November, main airports in Greece recorded an increase in international arrivals of 6.2 percent (up 8.6 percent since the beginning of the year). More specifically, in November international arrivals at Greek regional airports were up by 7,3 percent (up 9.6 percent since the beginning of the year) and in Athens by 5,8 percent (up 5.8 percent since the beginning of the year).

In addition, aside from the greater increase in arrivals at Greece’s regional airports than Athens, a reduction in the country’s seasonality was also observed, as the rise in arrival numbers in April (+28.7 percent), May (+6.6 percent), June (+10.9 percent), September (+8.6 percent), October (+15.2 percent) and November (+6.2 percent), were (significantly) higher than the peak months of July (+5.7 percent) and August (+5.9 percent).

November’s international road arrivals to Greece showed a drop by seven percent. However, SETE Intelligence underlined that Greece’s road arrivals record a positive sign on an annual basis since their growth (+7.6 percent) has remained high since the start of the year.

INSETE’s bulletin also showed that the Consumer Confidence Index (CCI) shows improvement in most Greek tourism markets, with most levels being higher than the corresponding OECD average index. “Given that consumer confidence is an important parameter in planning leisure travel, this piece of data points to a potential for maintaining strong demand for the Greek tourism product,” SETE Intelligence said. The Turkish and British markets, which are very important to Greece, are an exception, as the respective index is down from last year.

SETE Intelligence is part of the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE) and aims to bolster the competitiveness of Greek tourism enterprises by providing information and documentation essential to improving existing services and products or to developing new ones.