The engines of tourism are at “full speed” throughout the festive 15th day – How travelers moved around Greece

With high occupancy rates as expected and the favorable weather, the tourist market moved during the holiday period, i.e. Christmas and New Year, while the picture does not seem to differ during the three days of Lights. This, as mentioned by the president of the Panhellenic Federation of Hoteliers, Grigoris Tassios, will “keep” businesses financially for the next 40 days until the three days of Clean Monday.

The weather, however, will not remain an ally if the temperatures do not drop and at the same time it does not fall… and some snow for the ski resorts to work so that people are motivated to escape to mountain destinations in the coming weekends.

As far as package travel is concerned, there was also an excellent picture as all the evidence shows that the market is recovering. More specifically, according to the president of HATTA, the Association of Tourist and Travel Agencies in Greece, Lyssandros Tsilidis, the average mobility of the entire year reached 80% of 2019, which is a very good result given the problems it caused and caused by the pandemic.

The good weather favored commuting during the holidays

“The weather conditions were very good for the days of the holidays and they favored travel.

The cities that had theme parks, such as Drama, Trikala, etc., worked especially well, where people started going even before the start of the holidays”, says the president of POX, Grigoris Tasios, speaking to the Athenian and Macedonian News Agency.

“On the five days of Christmas and New Year, all the destinations worked, such as the mountainous Peloponnese, Arachova, Pelion, Ioannina law (both the city and the highlands) but also the urban centers such as Thessaloniki, Athens, Kavala and Alexandroupoli which were mainly full during the three days of Christmas, New Year and, apparently, of the Lights.

That is, there is a differentiation between the mountainous mass and the urban centers.

The average occupancy for approximately 1400 businesses was 80% for the 15th day of the holidays”, notes Mr. Tassios. As he points out, the Balkan tourists have also returned, more in Thessaloniki and less in Kavala and Alexandroupoli.

He notes of course that from now on the bet will be the weather because there are 40 days until Clean Monday and already from January 10 onwards there is nothing. “In other words, we have a good festive fortnight and a bad next 40 days. Any business profitability will be exhausted in the next period. In other words, we are, to put it simply, “equal boat, equal sails”, emphasized the president of POX.

In Epirus, which seems to have managed to win the bet of 12-month tourism, since it is a place that offers many options, both the mountains and the cities were full of people, without the scene changing during the three days of Lights, as the Deputy Governor of Tourism points out of the Region of Epirus, Stratos Ioannou.

“We may not have snow, but this did not prevent people from visiting both the mountainous areas and the cities, especially Ioannina. We have invested a lot in visibility and extroversion, we are now visited by more foreign tourists than in the past and it is expected that 2023 will be a better year than all the previous ones”.

Regarding the new year and how tourist traffic is expected to shape up in 2023, Mr. Tassios pointed out that there are two dates that will determine it: the first is on January 31, when the 1st round of early bookings closes, and the second on 31 March, when the second and longest cycle closes.

People are very interested in traveling

“People were very interested in traveling, especially after the previous two years. At Christmas, in contrast to Easter, cities dominate as destinations, because people want to have fun, go out, shop, etc. that’s why we saw a lot of tourist traffic in Athens, Thessaloniki and Crete” noted the president of HATTA, Lysandros Tsilidis, adding that the theme parks gave an additional asset to the destinations.

As far as Greece is concerned, the destinations preferred and preferred by visitors and which went very well are Ioannina, Zagorochoria, Tzoumerka, Nymphaeum, Pelion, Pertouli, Elati, Plastira lake, Trikala, Karditsa, Karpenissi, Parnassos, Arachova, Galaxidi, Peloponnese and especially Kalavrita, Nafplio and Kalamata.

Crete and especially the urban centers had a particular preference.

“In Thessaloniki the foreign visitors were mainly from the Balkans, while in Athens they came from America, Europe and Israel”, added Mr. Tsilidis.

As far as Greeks’ trips abroad are concerned, many have chosen Santa’s village in Rovaniemi, London, Paris, Budapest and various cities in Germany, Italy and Spain. In general, Europe was high in preferences, while there was no shortage of trips to Turkey, Jerusalem, Egypt as well as the more distant ones, the transatlantic ones.

RES-EMP

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