A drop of up to -86% compared to last year saw July as regards traffic at Greek airports. According to the country’s first figures from major airports, the month ending has moved to ¼ and even lower than last July. For example, at the largest airport in the country, El. Venizelos, all passenger traffic (arrivals, departures, internal, external) stands at -70% compared to last July, while for the most popular Greek destination, that of Mykonos, traffic is down 76% compared to last year.
The figures are also falling sharply at Rhodes airport, the island operators point out that after the first fortnight, the first weekend (July 18th and 19th) the numbers of international arrivals were encouraging as “compared to the average for the first 15 days, arrivals are up by 130%”, with more than 1 out of 3 tourists (36.7%) come from Germany, followed by Poles (14.8%) and Czechs (8.9%). For example, between the restart of this year’s tourist season (July 1st) and July 19th through 341 flights to Rhodes’s “Diagora” airport, a total of 56,341 tourists arrived.
On the contrary, there is a large fall in the Ionian Sea and, for example, at Kefalonia airport, the drop is as much as 86% compared to last year. For their part, the airlines are continuing their efforts to stimulate demand by constant offers, whether they relate to family packages with offers – for example, Aegean, which offers a discount for children – or to domestic flights which support and Greek movements mainly to the islands – for example. Volotea.
Co-advertising In the same context and with the aim of promoting Greek tourism abroad, Aegean, the largest domestic carrier, joins the Greek Tourism Organization with another new, promotional campaign for Greek tourism called ‘Greece’. More than a destination” – “Greece. Many more than one destination,” which will run until the end of 2020.
The campaign is aimed at visitors from the countries: The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Cyprus, Israel, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria, has been translated into six languages and will be shown with targeted actions by the end of the year on all online media (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube) as well as on Greek air channels. In June, the EOT board approved the co-advertising program (with themes ‘Sea & Sun’ – ‘Sun & Sea’ and ‘City break’ – ‘City tourism’) with Aegean, with an EOT financial participation rate of 50% of the total investment (700 mm in value). now VAT 24%), or 350 mm Euro plus VAT 24%. The program will be implemented in three phases during the second half of 2020, for the two-month period of July-August, mainly on the theme “Sun and Sea”, for the two-month period of September-October, combining both themes and the two-month period of November-December, mainly on the theme of “City break”.
Their ‘change’ for August is played by the country’s hoteliers, given the weak reservations recorded for the month of July, which traditionally represents one of the strongest months of the summer.
As the tourism market players point out one airports, the number of reservations so far remains low, with the lion’s share of mainland Greece and islands keeping track of low bookings, due to the fact that the move to them requires a public transport medium, which increases the hesitation of domestic and foreign travelers.
Following the new wave of cancelations sparked by the government’s decision to take a mandatory test that must have taken place in the last 72 hours before tourists enter the country from Promahona, the country’s hoteliers are focusing their hopes for August. At the same time, many of them stress that they are considering closing their seasonal accommodation even in early September in an attempt to limit the damage.
It should be noted that completeness in Northern Greece, which was 40%, fell to 20% after the announcement of the new measures and continues to move at low levels. Similarly, completeness in other travel destinations in the country is low, 15%-30% at a time when only 50% to 70% of the country’s hotel capacity has opened, according to the Greek Federation of Hoteliers.
“Low flights” at the country’s airports The data is also confirmed by the few arrivals at the country’s airports. In particular, in the first half of July, when the country’s regional airports were opened up, not of course for all countries, passenger traffic was reduced by 70-80% compared to last year, with the percentage registering slight variations according to destination.
An illustration was taken at Heraklion airport where foreign flights in the first fortnight were 83,000 out of 304,000 last year. Just as at Mykonos airport, in the first half of July arrivals reached 30,000 of the more than 150,000 last year. Losses of 80% were recorded at the country’s second premium island airport, Santorini, compared to last year’s figures.
\Of the 70 flights on the day it was last week in the first week of July, we had 18 flights a day which increased by 10 flights since the British market opened for our country.
“Low flights” are characteristic of all 14 regional airports operated by Fraport Greece with traffic amounting to nearly 263,000 passengers in the first ten days of July, falling by 83.8% compared to 2019, when traffic reached 1.622m in the same period. passengers.
The climate is also exacerbating by the low movement of domestic tourists, an image which could improve next month on the one hand because voucher projects for social tourism will be activated and on the other hand because August is steadily the preferred month for Greek holidays.
Hoteliers say they will be pleased to secure for the hottest month of summer 30% to 40% of last year’s demand. So far, however, the fall at international level has been estimated at 87.9%, while at internal level a decrease of 62.1% has been recorded.