A flow of Australian tourists is expected this year in Greece, following the announcement of the Australian government to abolish COVID-19 restrictions, after almost two years of ban.
The Greek Tourism Minister, Vassilis Kikilias, shared the news during a meeting with the Australian Ambassador by also welcoming the decision, which will impact the industry, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“Australia will lift travel restrictions on vaccinated citizens from February 21, which is expected to significantly increase Australian tourist flows to Greece in 2022,” Kakilias pointed outs.
Accordingly, to the Australian government lifting restrictions, the Greek authorities also abolished the requirement of presenting a COVID-19 test for all Australians that are fully vaccinated.
Moreover, the Australian Ambassador in Greece, Arthur Spyrou, also shared his insight for the country’s tourism season, which is expected to reach pre-pandemic levels. He said that the tourism season of 2022 will an “an extremely successful tourist year”.
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In addition, Spyrou pointed out that bookings’ figures show a significant increase of Australian travellers planning to visit the Hellenic Republic.
According to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the number of Australian tourists has surged in the last two years, counting approximately 320,000 tourists since 2017, almost 70 per cent more than in 2016.
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Besides Australians, Greece is a top favourite destination also for European travellers, as the European Travel Commission (ETC) has revealed in its latest reports.
According to the authority, although Greece has ranked lower compared to last year, falling right behind Italy, Spain, France and Germany, it remains one of the top five destinations for German nationals, Italians, Belgians, Poles and Austrians.
The country was highly acclaimed for being the leader in tourism last year when other countries were imposing stringent lockdowns in a bid to protect public health by COVID-19. According to several travel organisations, including the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC), Greece managed to welcome one of the highest numbers of tourists compared to other European countries and considering the fact that the whole world was trying to combat the ongoing pandemic.
Data from the bank of Greece shows that the number of international arrivals increased by 96.8 per cent in January-November 2021, compared to the corresponding time in 2020.
The majority of this increase is noticed in German visitors, who showed a surge of 95.2 per cent, accounting for 2.9 million. French followed, with 148.6 per cent more arrivals compared to the previous year- about 1.2 million of them.
