WTM: The impressive presence of Greece – England’s first market with 3 million tourists (photos)

With an impressive, innovative and modern presence, Greece gave the potential “present” to one of the largest tourist exhibitions in the world, the World Travel Market (WTM) which opened its doors today in London with Greek flags flying at the entrance.

The UK market has shown its support for our country’s tourism product as one of the strongest for 2022: “Three million Brits, lengthening tourist season and new flights, new destinations from airlines such as Easy Jet, British Airways and Jet 2. A fact that makes us happy and strengthens our strategy for the extension of the tourist season”, said Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias to the Athenian and Macedonian News Agency.

“We have a very successful new stand, it has impressed everyone at the show. All our exhibitors are here and the regions and municipalities and the private sector. We came out very strong in a tourism year that developed exceptionally despite many problems. However, our goal was to support the average Greek family, the small and medium-sized business and we will do the same in 2023. Despite the crisis, inflation, energy costs, uncertainty, I see that the major airlines and tour operators they vote for Greece and support Greece, and in 2023. After all, throughout the summer we did not stop advertising Greece in all ways and this we will continue to do in combination with hard work”emphasized the Minister of Tourism.

England and Germany remain our two most important markets in recent years and alternate in first place, as pointed out the president of SETE (Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises) Yannis Retsos. “This year the year went very well like all the traditional markets for this in the end, despite the many problems – geopolitical, accuracy, energy – we end up having a very good year. We’re getting to what looks like 2019 revenue. We didn’t believe that at first, at some point in the middle of the year we thought we might exceed it by a lot and finally it looks like we’re in 2019 and that’s extremely important because it’s also with less arrivals. This means that the per capita expenditure has increased and this is good because SETE’s strategy for tourism in the future is more quality tourism. That is, more revenue with the same or even fewer arrivals, until we can increase the infrastructure that can handle more people. What was done this year is in the right direction, it is definitely not the result of a strategy, it is more of a situational situation, but it shows the way, that is to say, this should be the goal from now on”, emphasized Mr. Retsos.

Regarding the issue of Russian tourists, he said that initially an attempt was made to create a climate of pessimism due to the lack of Russians. He said, however, that “the Russians in 2019 represented about 2% of our total revenue and they certainly affect some specific destinations and some businesses, but we said from the beginning of the year that this revenue would be covered by other markets, as it happened.”

Regarding the opening in America, Mr. Retsos emphasized that it was the result of a strategy and was not accidental. “For two years now, a very systematic work has been done, both by the private sector, and by the central government, the prime minister himself and also the minister of tourism, and I think that this was finally shown by the result, not only with the many flights but also with the fullness of these flights and with the planning of the Americans for the coming years because it is a long-term strategy and not a momentary one.

The fact that the flights are maintained, their duration is extended but new ones are also being planned shows that the Americans are now betting on tourism in Greece for many years to come”, emphasized the president of SETE.

The EOT stand and Greece of the five senses at WTM

Smells of Greek herbs, which you can touch, original constructions that stand as trees so that you can sit in their “shadow” listening to the cicadas and the splashing of the waves, the sunset, the Greek blue, images of the infinite beauty of our country travel the visitor through modern constructions with screens. “2022 closes with the most important exhibition in the world, WTM”, says the general secretary of EOT Dimitris Fragakis and emphasizes that “We are here making use of all the possibilities we could have”. “We are coming very well organized with a new stand that we designed and implemented over the last two years and we worked very hard on it. We have come up with a specialized presentation on sustainability that will focus on eco islands. It is generally a very critical moment for 2023 and for the following years, to show the international audience that Greece can do much more. And the international presence at our stand, the discussions we have had with people from the market, show that we are gradually achieving this.

Our stand has incorporated the feeling of Greece by touching all five senses.

“This year the Exhibition has fully returned, after last year’s opening and the pandemic. The tourists from England who chose Greece reached 3 million, surpassing Germany this year”, said the head of the EOT office in London, Eleni Skarvelis.

“The English do what we call “revenge tourism” and I think that the energy crisis will not affect them. The market is still a bit numb but bookings have already started for 2023. What is impressive about the UK market is that pre-bookings have already started for 2024. Jet2 and TUI have already launched advertising campaigns for 2024 There has been an increase in all capacity, the flying project has already increased for 2023 and all the tour operators have added more flights, and in this we have surpassed 2019″, emphasized Mrs. Skarveli.

RES-EMP

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