The curtain of the new tourist season opened with the right for the major island destinations of the country, Rhodes, Crete, Kos and Corfu, in a season where new trends have already been formed.
First, the trend for a lengthening of the summer season, especially towards the end of it; second, the trend for an increase in travel outside the August peak due to lower prices and climatic conditions with less high temperatures; and third, the trend for the rise of the less prominent island destinations, also due to more attractive prices and less crowds.
In terms of initial estimates, the Bank of Greece notes that after last year’s year of historically high performance, Greek tourism, despite geopolitical tensions and inflationary pressures in key European markets, is maintaining its positive momentum and receipts, as estimated, will record a slight increase in 2024.
The leading indicators from the tourism market itself are similar. And while many seasonal units on the islands are already open due to the Easter holidays, the first signals of bookings for the new season, as stated by leading hoteliers to “THEMA”, refer to a “good picture, equivalent and slightly better than that of 2023”, which was also the best year historically in terms of receipts for Greek tourism.
Based on final data from the Bank of Greece released last week, record travel receipts in 2023 stood at €20.59 billion (+16.5% compared to 2022) and inbound travel traffic at over 36 million travellers (+20.8%), including cruise.
However, the average expenditure per trip decreased by 3.5% compared to 2022, reaching €571 last year, due to an 11% drop in the average length of stay index, to 6.5 from 7.4 nights in 2022.
On the other front, that of the aviation market, airlines and airports, apart from the very good performance of Athens, which is having its best year this year, at the 14 regional airports managed by Fraport Greece, which include some of the country’s top tourist destinations, the picture points to “soft growth” in 2024 at two speeds.
The picture at the 14 regional airports
“For the 2024 season – and subject to geopolitical developments – we see that we will have a more moderate growth compared to last year, heading towards stabilisation,” George Vilos, general director of Development at Fraport Greece, tells THEMA, with the reasoning that the double-digit rates recorded in the last two years of recovery after the pandemic will not be achieved.
As for the passenger traffic trend to date at the 14 regional airports (Aktion, Chania, Corfu, Kavala, Kefalonia, Thessaloniki, Zakynthos, Kos, Mytilini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Samos, Santorini, Skiathos), the start of the first, weaker due to seasonality, The first quarter of the year closed with more than 2 million passengers in total traffic, compared to 1.88 million in the same quarter last year, with this April also closing on a positive note compared to April 2023 based on preliminary data.
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“For this summer season at the 14 regional airports we see two-speed destinations, with a fatigue and downturn in the two major destinations of the Cyclades, Mykonos and Santorini airports, and a lower airline presence.
On the other hand, major destinations such as Rhodes, Kos, Chania or Corfu airport are showing strong demand. It seems that the big tour operators are also investing there, seeing signs of strong demand on their part,” he notes.
The observed fatigue in the country’s two premium destinations was also recorded at the recent annual major meeting of the European airline industry “Routes Europe 2024” (22-24 April), with the market focusing, as it did last year, on the issue of infrastructure and prices.
The country’s two premium destinations saw a slight drop in their international air traffic last year, but overall in domestic – international traffic they finally closed the initial gap with 1.66 million passengers (-1.7% vs. 2022) for Mykonos and 2.77 million passengers (+1.1%) for Santorini.
