Handelsblatt — According to the Greek tourism ministry predictions the number of foreign holidaymakers will top last year’s all-time high of 27.5 million and break the 30-million mark. The number of German tourists visiting the country should jump by about 50 percent to up to 3 million in 2017.
Greece expects to benefit from several factors this year. Tourists are shunning other popular holiday destinations such as Turkey or Egypt, due to political uncertainty and increased travel risks.
Moreover, since the implementation of a refugee deal between the European Union and Turkey a year ago, an influx of refugees that made headlines in 2015 has declined sharply. On the particularly affected islands of Lesbos and Chios, where thousands of refugees are stranded, tourism is recovering more slowly. The island of Kos, however, recorded significant growth in bookings.
Greece also expects over 900,000 visitors from the US in the 2017 holiday season, up from 778,600 last year. Revenues from American vacationers are set to rise to €728 million George Trivizas, the chairman of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Tourism (HACT) said
The additional cash is a boon for the Greek economy, which suffered a deep recession from 2008 to 2013 as it battled a massive debt crisis and has mostly stagnated ever since. Tourism generated sales of around €13 billion in 2016 and that figure could jump by up to 50 percent, according to the tourism ministry.
Athens also expects a significant increase in the number of employees in that sector. Even if the majority of these are temporary or seasonal jobs, this would be at least temporary reprieve for the country with an unemployment rate of over 23 percent – still the highest in the EU.
Despite overall optimism for the season, the mood is not completely euphoric. The Greek tourism industry is also affected by a series of austerity measures and tax increases that international creditors are demanding of Athens in its ongoing bailout talks. The value-added tax applicable to the hospitality sector rose from 13 to 24 percent.
“To stay competitive, we don’t want to pass on these increases and other charges to customers,” Dimitris Skalidis, who runs three hotels in the fishing town of Tolo in the Peloponnese, told German news agency DPA.
