2024-05-08 03:30:58
The season for popular tourist destinations has started strongly in terms of arrivals and occupancy levels, with hotel businessmen already talking about another good year for Greek tourism. Early bookings this year by the major tour operators were on the rise, recording an increase compared to last year that reaches up to 10%, depending on the destination, while expectations are also important from last-minute bookings for summer vacations.
The icon in Santorini
“Bookings up to and including the end of April in Santorini are on a positive path, continuing at 2023 standards. As we move further into the season, we expect a more dynamic rate of new bookings, as travelers’ booking patterns have changed substantially and significantly affect their final decision. In this context, last-minute bookings are expected to significantly affect the final result this year as well”, underlines Vasilios Koumbis, general manager of Katikies group, in “K”.
“In terms of key geographic visitor markets, there is no change in the core mix. The US market leads bookings, followed by the UK, other European Union countries and Australia. In terms of pricing, the Santorini five-star hotel market is maintained at highly competitive levels in relation to the proposals of corresponding international destinations. The main problem I would say starts when we start and see the quality/price ratio in lower categories – four and three stars – where there is indeed a discrepancy in several cases, with the prices not supported by corresponding services”, he notes.
“Claims of over-tourism in Santorini have probably created a somewhat misleading image, as in recent years the island has experienced a more ‘mild’ occupancy during the traditional peak seasons such as late July and August. Obviously on certain days/times the island can reach its limits, however this is not a generalized situation and its promotion as such can only harm the reputation of the island”, says Mr. Koumbis.
Price “war” in Crete
Based on the data to date, this year is expected to be successful for the Crete market as a whole, emphasizes Marita Karatzi, president of the MK Hotel Collection group. “This does not mean that everything will work on the automatic, but certainly those hoteliers who have prepared well and are willing to show flexibility and dynamism during the season will be vindicated by the final result. In terms of occupancy, the data so far is positive, however it should be emphasized that there is currently a wider wave of sales on the island that in some cases reaches the limits of exaggeration, resulting in a distorted image for potential visitors. As we enter the heart of the season, this phenomenon is expected to subside, but in any case it eats away at valuable profitability units from the total financial result of the year”.
“In terms of the composition of the markets from which our visitors come, the situation remains stable, with the markets of Germany and the United Kingdom maintaining a strong presence, while Poland and the Czech Republic are showing signs of strong mobility. As long as no important geopolitical event occurs, we expect an extremely good summer season for Crete’s hotels”, adds Mrs. Karatzi.
Last minute bookings are on the rise
“Last minute bookings tend to occupy an increasingly larger share of our total sales, as the booking window is dramatically reduced”, says the co-owner of Kalesma Mykonos, Aby Saltiel, to “K”.
“At the moment June and September have a well-documented good picture, while July and August show that they need time to deliver the expected fullnesses. The brand equity that each hotel has built will play an important role more than ever. As far as the international markets are concerned, at Kalesma we see for one more year the market of the United States dominating and having quite a dynamic footprint, significantly outpacing the traditional markets of the European continent. France, probably due to the Olympic Games, has not yet produced the expected results, while our visitors from England are expected to be more active later in the season.”
Raised expectations
Although in the last few years tourism entrepreneurs do not set any quantitative goal for the season, neither in terms of the number of visitors expected nor in terms of revenue, but insist more on qualitative goals, there is optimism that this season will go even better from last year, where we had records in both of these critical tourist figures.
The start of the season earlier this year with charter flights, the increase in hotel prices in contracts with tour operators and the positive signals from the distant markets of the USA and China, from which we suffered big losses during the pandemic period with travel restrictions imposed, heighten positive expectations.
According to data from INSETE’s Airdata Tracker, the total number of air seats on inbound international flights for the summer period of 2024 reaches 26.955 million, registering a change of 8.2% compared to 2023. 54% of air seats concern, in fact, the heart of the tourist season, the third quarter.
It is typical that 3.3 million are the scheduled air seats in May, 4.3 million in June, from 5 million in July and August, 4.3 million air seats are scheduled for September and 2.8 million seats for October, which marks the end of the summer season.
The traffic at the country’s airports, although it is still early, shows the upward trend in arrivals. In the period January-March 2024, 1.6 million international air arrivals were recorded, surpassing the levels of January-March 2023, showing an increase of +18.7%/+253,000 arrivals.
Athens International Airport recorded 1.2 million international air arrivals, showing an increase of +197,000/+20.4%. It was followed by Thessaloniki airport, where 371,000 international air arrivals were recorded, showing an increase of +43,000/+13.3%.
Heraklion airport recorded an increase of +7,000/+40.4% and international air arrivals reached 25,000, while Rhodes airport recorded 19,000 international air arrivals, showing an increase of +8,000/+72.9%.
The overall picture of tourism in 2023
According to the latest data from the Bank of Greece on the tourism performance of the past year, travel receipts in 2023 amounted to 20.5 billion euros, showing an increase of 16.5% compared to 2022.
Regarding the distribution of the travel expenditure of non-residents in Greece by reason of travel, the main volume of receipts is related to travel for personal reasons, whose share in total travel receipts was 94.7% in 2023, compared to 94.6% in 2022, while total travel receipts for personal reasons increased by 16.6%.
Within this category, leisure travel has the largest share of total receipts (2023: 87.9%, 2022: 85.3%). Receipts from leisure travel increased by 20.1% compared to the previous year and amounted to 18,100.8 million euros. Receipts from travel to visit relatives/family fell by 15.9%, with their share of total travel receipts at 4.4%, down from the previous year (2022: 6.1%). Travel receipts for health reasons also showed a decrease of 40.0% and amounted to 37.0 million euros. Finally, business travel receipts increased by 15.6%, with their participation in total travel receipts reaching 5.3% (2022: 5.4%).
Overnight stays by foreign visitors in Greece amounted to 236,271.2 thousand in 2023, compared to 220,213.1 thousand in 2022, showing an increase of 7.3%. Overnight stays from Germany did not show much change compared to 2022, while those from Italy increased by 33.3% and those from France decreased by 1.5%. Among other countries, overnight stays from the UK fell by 5.2%, while those from the US increased by 23.1%.
Last year also saw total receipts from cruise passengers increase by 84.1%, compared to 2022, to €908.4 million, of which €61.0 million is included in the data recorded by the Border Survey , as they concern travelers who departed from Greece (last port).
The total overnight stays of non-cruise ship passengers increased in 2023 by 121.5% compared to 2022 and amounted to 9,421.9 thousand overnight stays, positively affecting the formation of cruise receipts. Total cruise passengers are estimated at 3,484.1 thousand, showing an increase of 61.1%.
The main port in terms of cruise ship arrivals is Santorini, with 15.5% of the total. They are followed by the port of Piraeus and the port of Mykonos, with 14.8% and 14.5% of receipts respectively.
In 2023, total cruise passenger visits reached 6,964.2 thousand, compared to 4,493.6 thousand visits in 2022, showing an increase of 55.0%. The supplementary cruise survey revealed that 83.6% of passengers were transit visitors, who made an average of 2.0 stops in Greek ports. The top seven ports of call for cruise ships account for 90.8% of total cruise receipts and 82.7% of total passenger visits.
Source capital.gr