Greece has seen a 22 per cent increase in year-on-year arrivals between January and August 2014 according to provisional data recently released by the Bank of Greece. In the first eight months of 2014 Greece welcomed a record number of visitors totaling 15.3 million.

Christina Kalogera, Director of the Greek National Tourism Organisation said: “We are delighted to report 2014 has proved to be a fantastic year for tourism and we are proud it is one of the main factors driving recovery in the economy. We continue to work hard to increase the holiday season, facilitating the development of a range of new holiday products as well as highlighting unknown gems that we are confident people will love to visit.”

In the year to August, Greece saw a 16 per cent increase of arrivals from the United Kingdom and a staggering 20 per cent increase of travel receipts.

Flights

According to the Greek Civil Aviation Authority international flight arrivals to Greece grew by 14 per cent between January and June 2014, while provisional data for July and August report a further increase of arrivals by 15 per cent.

Meanwhile Athens and Mykonos airports experienced some of the highest increases in passenger traffic in Europe for the month of August. The European airport trade body, Airports Council International (ACI), data showed that Athens International Airport experienced a 23 per cent increase in passenger traffic in August and that Mykonos saw a 33 per cent increase in passenger traffic.

Visitors to museums and archaeological sites

The Greek National Statistics Authority has reported that between January and June 2014, there was a 20 per cent increase in the number of visitors to museums and a 27 per cent increase in the respective receipts, in comparison with the corresponding period of 2013. Furthermore, the number of visitors at archaeological sites recorded an increase of 24 per cent and the corresponding receipts rose by 17 per cent compared to 2013. For instance, in the period January to June 2014 visits to the Acropolis Museum rose by 20 per cent, 14 per cent to the National Archaeological museum, while visits to the Heraklion Archaeological Museum in Crete grew by 95 per cent. 

GfK Leisure Travel Monitor – 8 per cent increase in UK bookings to Greece

The 'Leisure Travel Monitor' report from British-based analyst GfK measures outbound UK bookings through the whole of the travel agent shop market and through a defined read of direct bookings and has revealed an 8 per cent increase in UK holiday bookings to Greece in the first three quarters of 2014 compared to 2013.

According to the analyst, Greece has significantly outperformed the rest of the market in the first nine months of 2014, which shrunk by 3 per cent overall. Greece's islands experienced an increase in bookings of 10 per cent while the Peloponnese and Pelion experienced a 68 and 45 per cent growth respectively. 

Peak booking months for 2014

GfK's data reveals that for the holiday year of 2014, the highest booking month for holidays to Greece was in January, which took 15 per cent of total bookings for the year. Twenty-five per cent of bookings were taken in 2013, with the highest booking months in 2013 being September and October, which took nearly 5 per cent respectively. After January, February delivers the highest number of bookings for Greece, followed by July, and June. 

Shoulder season boost

For the year to September 2014 GfK also reports that while 60 per cent of the holidays for Greece in 2014 were taken in the peak third quarter of July, August and September, Greece's work on increasing passenger numbers in the shoulder seasons is beginning to show some results with holidays in April 2014 experiencing the biggest increase in passenger numbers up 45 per cent; May experienced an 8 per cent rise, June 7 per cent, September 8 per cent and October saw a 4 per cent growth.  

Accommodation-only and package holiday growth

The biggest growth has been at the two ends of the market with accommodation-only bookings up 17 per cent, and holiday packages to Greece - which make up for 88 per cent of the bookings - up 10 per cent. Furthermore, in the year to September 2014 self-catering bookings were up by 9 per cent and hotel bookings up 10 per cent. In terms of the board-basis within hotel bookings, all-inclusive was up 16 per cent, half board was up by 8 per cent and bed & breakfast was up 9 per cent.

Bookings for 2015

Early indications of bookings for 2015 – up until September 2014 – reveal a year-on-year increase of 4 per cent, with Corfu up 8 per cent, Kos up 23 per cent, Mykonos up 61 per cent, Santorini up 19 per cent, Skiathos up 10 per cent, Athens up 24 per cent, Halkidiki up 15 per cent, Pelion up 14 per cent and Peloponnese up 20 per cent.

Ends

For further press information, please contact: Frances Tuke, Lotus UK, T: 020 7953 7470 E: frances@lotus-uk.co.uk or Panos Papadopoulos, Greek National Tourism Organisation, GNTO UK & Ireland Office, T: 020 7495 9311, E: media@gnto.co.uk

Notes for Editors: GfK is one of the world's largest research companies, with around 13,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think, shop and book holidays in more than 100 countries every day. We offer the most comprehensive and accurate picture of the UK outbound holiday market offering insight into where, when, what and how consumers book.

The Leisure Travel Monitor is the leading service in the UK of its kind, covering the whole of the retail travel agent environment and a defined direct market. The service includes in excess of 15 million passenger bookings per annum and is unique in reporting holiday bookings yet to travel. Data in the report covers bookings up until the 31st march for departures in 2013 and 2014).”

The GfK “Look, Book, Took” Monitor is a monthly survey conducted on our Consumer Panel of 10,000 nationally representative GB individuals.  It tracks the purchase journey for consumer leisure travel, from initial thought through to final purchase covering consumer interactions with every touch point in between.

*The GfK Leisure Travel Monitor measures outbound UK bookings through the whole of the travel agent shop market and through a defined read of direct bookings.