Optimism over tourism in Greek islands

The tourist sector welcomes August with optimism as most destinations have reached 90% capacity in reservations. 

In reply to the question of whether the fire in Rhodes could endanger this year's tourism, the president of the Hellenic Association of Travel & Tourist Agencies, Lysandros Tsilidis, pointed out to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) that the summer season and especially August will not face a problem in tourist flows to Greece. "These days all the destinations will well perform, especially in August," he said and added: "Time will help to overcome any issues that may have arisen."

Tsilidis noted that given the peak tourist season in all competing destinations in Greece, it will be very difficult for those who have planned a vacation in Greece to change their trip to somewhere else. Next week, however, the Greek travel agencies have an extraordinary meeting with the European Travel Agents' and Tour Operators' Associations in order to be briefed on the prevailing conditions.

Regarding reports on how tourist agencies handled the situation in Rhodes, he underlined that travel agencies are struggling every day to meet the tourists' needs, they have not abandoned any customers.

Focusing on the island destinations that play the leading role in tourist flows, for one more year Crete is the leading force in the Greek tourism sector. And this year, as the president of the Hoteliers' Union of Crete, Manolis Tsakalakis, pointed out to ANA-MPA, it will reach approximately 6 million arrivals, 10% up compared to last year. Mykonos and Santorini remain consistently high in popularity worldwide, according to MTC GROUP surveys.

Meanwhile, the islands with over 90% occupancy in August are Lipsi, Samos and Lesvos, Ios, Skopelos, Astypalaia, Andros, Kalymnos, Sifnos, Karpathos, Paros, and Naxos.