Holiday group TUI expects the highest level of demand for Greece on record this year, its director of Communications Aage Duenhaupt told Athens news agency on Sunday.
Tourism accounts for about 20% of Greece’s gross domestic product and has a crucial role in helping the economy to emerge from a decade-long debt crisis followed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Foreign visitors are flocking back to Greece’s islands and ancient monuments, raising hopes for its vital tourism industry after a turbulent two years, though the impact of high inflation means a return to normal may still be some way off.
Greek tourism suffered its worst ever year in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic decimated global travel.
This year, despite a deepening global cost-of-living crisis and the continued presence of the virus, officials expect the sector to bring in 80% of the record 18 billion euros ($18.4 billion) of revenues generated in 2019.
“Greece is again this summer one of the most popular holiday destinations. We expect the highest level of demand ever,” Duenhaupt said.
“In total the group is expected to bring around 3 million holidaymakers to Greece. A higher number of visitors than before the pandemic, when it was 2.8 million,” he added.
TUI has said it expects to become profitable again in 2022 as countries have lifted restrictions on movement.
Greek officials have said they expect the sector to bring in 80% of the record 18 billion euros ($18.33 billion) of revenues generated in 2019, before the pandemic, on the basis of 33 million arrivals, compared with the 14 million visitors from abroad last year.
They could face disruption, however, as strikes and staff shortages have forced thousands of flight cancellations across Europe.
“After two years of hard pandemic, we’re glad to have our guests back in a normal season,” said Babbis Voulgaris, a hotelier on the Ionian island of Corfu. “Occupancy is high for our hotels. For the rest of the summer, we’re optimistic.”
Tourism accounts for a fifth of the economy and one in five jobs, percentages that are even higher on Corfu.
The sector began to recover last year and is expected to keep growing for the next two years, according to the Greek central bank.
“We’re very happy, satisfied,” said Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias, while cautioning that the pandemic, economic crisis and the war in Ukraine made for a “a very, very difficult” backdrop. (Reuters)