Europe
Middle East, China and India, and several emerging markets of the Balkans and Eastern Europe.” Greece represents a major opportunity for new investment in tourism. In 2017, tourism investments were worth €3.1 billion, while over the past three years, more than 350 projects were submitted for existing and new four- and five-star hotels. Among them are 15 integrated tourism resorts, with capacity in four- and five-star hotels increased by 25,000 beds. Many niche sectors are being targeted, including health and wellness; city breaks; Mice; weddings and honeymoons; gastronomic and wine routes; cruising and yachting; and LGBT, promoting Greece year-round. Market research company GlobalData expects figures for 2018 to be very strong, while adding a note of caution about the resurgence of Turkey.
“The Greek economy may still be struggling, but the country is braced for a record-breaking 35 million holidaymakers this year, with bookings for the 2018 season already noting a double-digit growth,” says the company. “In the past years, tourism was the lifejacket of debt-stricken Greece. From 2013 to 2017, international arrivals grew at an annual rate of 12.8% to 31.8 million inbound trips, generating record tourism revenue of $16.7 billion in 2017.
Greek cuisine is a perennial favourite
“Greece got the lion’s share of sun-seeking Russian tourists who were deprived of visiting Turkey, and between 2015 and 2016, Russian arrivals to Greece increased by 23.5%.”
The resurgence of Turkey and Egypt, and a slight decline in arrivals from core markets such as France and the UK, could slow growth in inbound tourism to Greece in the coming years. But with strong performance in markets such as Bulgaria, Italy, Romania, Poland and the USA, GlobalData forecasts that total international arrivals to Greece will grow at an annual rate of 4% between 2017 and 2022. Market research provider Euromonitor International is also optimistic. “Tourism is boosted by Greece’s status as a safe and stable country within an otherwise turbulent region, marked by terrorist attacks and political tensions in competing ‘sea and sun’ destinations in Northern Africa and Turkey,” it says.
Turkey takes a good turn
The year 2018 will be remembered as the year when tourism to Turkey (EU1200) rebounded strongly, despite the ongoing political and security issues the country faces. Turkey has been a bridge between east and west throughout history. Despite the war and refugee crisis in neighbouring Syria, the appeal of the beach resorts in the west of the country has not been affected at all. Visitors in search of sun and sand can afford not to care about what happens in the east, and indeed about the political repression affecting many aspects of life as Turkey tilts towards ever more authoritarian rule. The resurgence has been tracked by ForwardKeys, which analyses more than 17 million fl ight reservations a day across major global reservation systems and combines this with data from selected airlines, tour operators and independent sources. Chief executive and co-founder, Olivier Jager, says: “Turkey’s inbound tourism has now recovered from the trauma it suffered in 2016 as a result of numerous terror attacks. “Tourists are prepared to reassess their impressions of a destination if it manages to remain safe for an extended period of time. It is encouraging that countries previously affected by unrest are seeing their tourism
marketing efforts pay off.” ForwardKeys research shows that Turkey (+22%) is out-performing a group of Mediterranean holiday destinations (+5%) in the year to August. Destinations that benefi ted from Turkey’s and North African destinations’ diffi culties by profi ling themselves as a safe alternative have experienced either a decrease or fairly moderate growth. It adds: “Turkey is not only doing well in its traditional markets, but is also paving the way for future growth by attracting upcoming markets such as China. The Turkey-China tourism year is playing an important role in generating positive trends.” Euromonitor International praises Turkey’s cultural appeal as well as its 380 Blue Flag beaches, but warns that political and security concerns have an effect. The important Russian market is still down on the good year of 2015 following a crisis in 2016 when Russian fl ights were banned after Turkey shot down a Russian fi ghter jet.
GlobalData adds: “The general story behind Turkey is that tourism is rebounding rapidly, following the past turbulent years. Tourists choose to travel to Turkey as they can enjoy the Mediterranean climate, sun, sea and relaxed atmosphere, but at a substantially lower price compared to Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal.”
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