Greece is turning out to be a bestseller for tourism this year, with demand being so high that hotels have already started to run out of available rooms.
According to announcements being made by a series of European and Russian tour operators, the number of tourists wanting to visit this year, is bigger than the number that Greece can actually accommodate!
As a result of this huge increase in bookings, as is being seen from the sales of the biggest tourist organisations around the world, the hotels in the most popular destinations such as, Crete, Rhodes, Zakynthos, Corfu, Santorini, and Mykonos, have already called for “stop sales” for the dates between 15th June and 15th September 2017, due to overbookings.
In order to deal with the surge in demand for Greece, many foreign tour companies are extending their holiday packages, to include smaller hotels and self catering accommodation, such as apartments and rooms.
Last year, around 28 million people visited Greece and this year, that figure is expected to be over 30 million according to the more modest forecasts. Greece is being asked to host an unprecedentedly high number of visitors – triple its own population, whilst there are areas, such as Crete, who is being called this year, to accommodate 4 million tourists, when the normal population on the island is only a mere 800,000.
The Ministry for Tourism can now see their planning paying off, but efforts continue for the growth of up and coming areas, such as Peloponnese, Thasos, the Sporades and a more even “spread” of tourists throughout the Country.
In addition, and in cooperation with airlines and tour operators, they are working on the extension of the summer season, from April until November.
The season has already begun in some of the more popular areas such as Crete, Rhodes, Santorini and Zakynthos and in 2017, high occupancies are not expected to be limited to the “high season” months alone. Good occupancies are expected early on due to the common dates for Easter between Catholic and Orthodox countries, with charter flights programmed to commence much sooner than previous years.
The Minister, Ms. Elena Koundoura, is determined to increase the numbers of passengers arriving into Greece from the non-Schengen countries of Russia, Israel, U.S.A. China and Arab countries, as the statistics show that tourist from these countries spend more during their holidays in Greece and in the majority of cases, they have a higher level of income.
The next target of the Minister and the Ministry, is India which is a huge market that travels regularly in Europe and there is no reason why Greece could not gain a “piece” of that market, starting this year.
It seems, that the positive progress of the tourist industry in Greece in 2017 will bring important help for the economy, with possibly as much as an additional 1 billion immediate income, and helping national growth with an estimated +2,7%, overall for the year.