South Aegean Region: 2019 Best Year for Tourism

Achieving increasing numbers of arrivals and revenues for the fourth consecutive year, the South Aegean Region, which includes popular islands like Rhodes, Santorini, and Mykonos, said this week that 2019 was its best year yet.

Citing Bank of Greece figures for 2019, regional authorities said the year was the best in the history of the island’s tourism industry, exceeding 2018 figures which was also a winning year.

According to central bank data for the January-September 2019 period, the South Aegean islands outshined the country’s 12 remaining regions in the number of arrivals, overnight stays, and revenues, contributing in the meantime, 40 percent of the sector’s share to Greek GDP.

More specifically, travel receipts for the nine-month period came to 4.69 million euros, exceeding the year total for 2018 at 4.41 million euros, significantly higher against the corresponding period in 2018 at 3.99 million euros and 3.28 million euros in 2017.

In terms of arrivals, South Aegean Region destinations welcomed some 6,025 million passengers in the first nine months of 2019 against 5,816 million in the same period in 2018 and 5,083 million in 2017.

A total of 47,990 million overnight stays were recorded in the January-September 2019 period compared to the same months in 2018 and 36,102 million in 2017.

Average spending per visit in the period under examination came to 779.6 euros against 686.7 euros a year earlier and 646.6 euros in 2017.