Tourist arrivals from Greece’s neighboring countries in southeastern Europe have seen a massive increase despite the country’s current economic recession, according to figures collected by the country’s statistical service and recently broken down by “N” , with just four countries – Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Albania – representing an increase of 115.6 percent between 2009 and 2016.
According to the Hellenic Statistics Authority (EL.STAT), the same upward trend was evident in 2016 and is expected to continue in the current season.
The increase in arrivals from neighboring countries nevertheless lags behind in terms of revenue per tourist, compared to other Western European markets. Analysts have pointed out that vacationers from neighboring countries are making more frequent but shorter trips to Greece, leading to lower frequency and lower value transactions. Furthermore, as a general rule, tourists from South-Eastern European countries also tend to have lower disposable vacation income than their counterparts from other European countries.
In absolute figures, the number of tourists from Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Serbia reached 3.66 million in 2015, compared to 1.697 million in 2009.
What is even more important is that the number of visits to Greece by citizens of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) in 2015 alone reached 3.023 million. This figure was not included in the overall figures for South-Eastern European countries, as EL.STAT did not take into account FYROM’s arrivals in 2009 as tourists.
Largest block of tourists
However, nationals from the neighboring country currently make up the largest bloc of tourists and visitors to Greece, with many day trips included in the total.
As for other Balkan countries, the number of arrivals from Bulgaria reached 1.9 million in 2015, a dramatic increase from 657,000 in 2009, an increase of 189 percent.
The number of Albanian tourists to Greece also doubled during the same period, from around 234,000 in 2009 to 491,000.
In total, almost 24 million tourists visited Greece in 2015, compared to just under 15 million in 2009, a figure that does not include cruise ship arrivals. The number of arrivals for 2016 was estimated at 24.799 million, while the target for 2017 is 26.5 million and 28.5 million including the cruise sector, according to the Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE).
Beyond “traditional” markets such as Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy, where the majority of tourists to Greece originate, arrivals from Turkey have increased by more than one million between 2009 and 2016; 1.2 million more over the same eight-year period in terms of arrivals from Asia.
Although still only a fraction of the total number, Chinese tourists reached 55,000 in 2016, a seven-fold increase from the paltry 7,793 recorded in 2009 by EL.STAT.
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RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, The Greek Islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek Tourism Report
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Source: naftemporiki.gr
