Greece Set to See Tourism Revival in 2022 Despite ‘Omicron’

Greece is among European tourism destinations expected to recover losses incurred by the Covid-19 pandemic thanks in large part to its high vaccination rates, found a report released recently by data analysis and tourism intelligence provider Mabrian Technologies.

According to the data comparing Omicron, vaccination rates and the outbound air capacity of the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Italy for the summer of 2022 towards their most popular international holiday destinations, air capacity for Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece this summer is set to return to pre-pandemic 2019 levels.

More specifically, according to Mabrian Technologies, air capacity for the from May 1 to October 30, 2022 is up over 2019 levels in Greece by 2 percent and in Portugal by 1 percent.

Air capacity is down in the same period in France by 19 percent, in Italy by 2 percent, and in Spain by 1 percent.

“Essentially Omicron pushed many more people to become fully vaccinated and our research shows that all the main outbound markets for European holidays have seen quite significant jumps in vaccination rates during that time,” said Mabrian Director of Sales & Marketing Carlos Cendra.

“At the same time, many more people have now been infected than before, or have had their third dose, giving them temporary confidence that they can travel,” he added.

The study’s analysts note that despite Omicron, air capacity in the winter months is usually down for seasonal destinations such as Greece, Spain, Italy, Portugal, and France.

“In recent months the capacity evolution hasn’t varied from a ’normal’ year. In other words, Omicron didn’t impact them,” they said.

The analysts go on to add that there is no indication that demand for domestic travel is falling across Europe, “which means that overall destinations could see themselves entering into overall visitors figures and occupancy rates higher than before the pandemic”.

“One thing is for sure: based on current scheduled capacity, inbound international arrivals the main European destinations are essentially back up to 2019 levels,” said Cendra.