ATHENS – What’s due to be a record-breaking tourist year in Greece in 2022 despite the waning COVID-19 pandemic will be extended into the winter and become a year-round attraction, with Austrians, Germans and Swedes especially keen oncoming.
Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias said Greece is reaping the benefits of reaching out with year-round attractions and luring pensioners from northern Europe wanting to escape a harsh winter and likely energy shortages.
He said Austrians are becoming even more interested in Greece beyond the summer and that it could see an increase in their arrivals because of increased air connections between the countries, said SchengenVisaInfo.com.
On a visit to Austria, Kikilias met that country’s Tourism Minister Susanne Kraus Winkler, with Austria and Vienna especially a lure for Greeks who want to experience cold weather winter attractions there.
Minister Kikilias, on an official visit to Austria, with his counterpart, Susanne Kikilias said that arrivals from organized travel packages have increased this year by 15 percent compared to the record-breaking year of 2019, which could be surpassed this year.
“It is indicative that Austrian arrivals to Crete are over 50 per cent and to Rhodes over 20 percent compared to 2019 … there is also high interest from the Austrian side to meet new Greek destinations,” he said.
He said that the success of this year so far in Greece that drew worldwide attention and endless cavalcades of arrivals has created a “strong magnet” for Austrians and other markets.
He and Winkler signed an agreement to strengthen the cooperation of the two countries in the field of tourism, including themes such as sports, agriculture and welfare and Greece trying to get more Austrians to keep coming.
German leading travel market players also see Greece continuing to be a draw even during the autumn and into the winter with offerings other than beaches, sun, sand and islands.
Kikilias, held a series of meetings with the heads of airlines as well as tour operators in Germany in a bid to keep the flow coming through the winter, the site also said in its report.
He met the heads of Lufthansa Group, Eurowings, Condor as well as Der Touristic, noting that Greece had outdone other countries in getting tourists after essentially lifting pandemic health measures.
He said that Greece was the only EU country to secure travel packages until the end of the year and get the interest of airlines to expand flights in the winter across the country, not just the major cities.
He noted that during this summer, Lufthansa Group’s airlines offered over 14,000 flights to Greece and Greek Travel Pages (GTP) reported that in a meeting with Lufthansa and Eurowings executives and government officials he emphasized what Greece has to offer the German visitors.
GTO also reported that Swedes are going to come during the winter which offers them a respite from the long, dark, cold days there and that the Greek tourism ministry has another slogan for them: More Than The Eye Can See.
