By Chrysostomos Tsoufis

More and more Greeks are abandoning the idea of ​​holidays at home and turning to destinations abroad. This trend is evident, according to the market players contacted skai.gr, and strengthened by 8% compared to last year. An 8% which as we approach August will increase as the tendency of Greeks to vacation abroad has almost exclusively to do with prohibitive travel costs primarily and secondarily with those in accommodation and catering within Greece.

tried to put all this on… paper. A family of four with 2 children between 5-10 years old and a medium car, departing on July 18th and returning on July 25th will be asked to pay for coasters the tickets:

  • up to €650 for Naxos
  • up to €648 for Paros
  • up to €638 for Milos
  • up to €870 for Kalymnos
  • up to €561 for Mytilini

If they chose to move with the airplanein Paros and Milos they would pay approximately the same, for Naxos and Mytilini significantly more and for Kalymnos considerably less:

  • €872 for Naxos
  • €674 for Paros
  • €652 for Milos
  • €704 for Kalymnos
  • €673 for Mytilini

But what is surprising and of course justifies the tendency…of Greek travelers to flee to abroad is that with significantly lower money most of the time, they can find excellent opportunities outside Greek territory. And I explain myself. The same family for the same period of time can travel by air:

€361 for Dubrovnik, Croatia
€412 for Valletta, Malta
€456 for Budapest, Hungary
€509 for Naples, Italy
€606 for Rome, Italy
€696 for Marseille, France

or if you prefer more exotic destinations such as:

Abu Dhabi of the UAE for €504
Cairo in Egypt for €626

In his question to the Ministers of Shipping Christos Stylianides and Development Takis Theodorikakos regarding the cost of ferry tickets, PASOK reminds of the increases in the period 2019-2023 based on the survey of the online booking platform ferryroute.com for a single ticket:

Chania: €27 to €41, +51.85%

Santorini: €41 to €58, +40%

Rhodes: €65 to €91, +39%

Tinos: €35 to €49, +40%

Paros: €36 to €50, +41.7%

Somehow traveling by ship in Greece has come to be considered unapproachable even compared to what happens in the traditionally much more expensive countries of Northern Europe.

In the research done by the people of PASOK, they report that the trip of a family of four by car and cabin for the distance Oslo (Norway) – Copenhagen (Denmark) costs €696.

The same family would need €1105 for the distance Piraeus-Rhodes! That is, he would pay 58.7% more money for a distance almost 7% shorter! (316 miles Oslo-Copenhagen and 296 miles Piraeus-Rhodes).