The arrival of tourists from the land borders of Greece has begun

About one in three tourists who come to Greece, passes through its land borders. In other words, they choose to come by road, according to the data recorded before the pandemic.

Despite the upheaval caused by the health crisis in terms of transportation and travel, it seems that travel by car or other vehicle, remains a strong trend and as some feel safer it becomes stronger.

With the opening of tourism in Greece, the first visitors have already started to arrive.

“The borders during this period have a normal movement which comes from the Balkan neighboring countries and visitors who take vacations either in Northern Greece or elsewhere, while on weekends we slowly see other tourists coming,” the president of the Panhellenic Hoteliers Federation Grigoris Tassios said, speaking to AMNA .

As he explained, at the moment the border crossings of Evzoni, Promachonas, Nymfaia and Ormeni are open, while Krystalopigi operates with a minimum number of people.

In order to understand the contribution of road tourism to the country’s inbound tourism, it is enough to recall the data obtained from the INSETE study for 2019: Road tourism amounted to 9.6 million arrivals, 38.2 million overnight stays and 1.8 billion euros of revenue, corresponding to 30.6% of total arrivals, 16.4% of overnight stays and 10.1% of revenue.

Road tourism, however, is a mainstay mainly of Northern Greece (Macedonia, Epirus, and Thrace). Regarding the transit of road tourism from main border stations in the years 2017 – 2019, the first three stations with the largest volume of traffic are consistently Promachonas (in the prefecture of Serres on the Greek-Bulgarian border), Evzoni (in the prefecture of Kilkis, on the border with Northern Macedonia) and Nymphaea (in the prefecture of Rodopi, on the Greek-Bulgarian border).

“Tourists who come by road are heading to Halkidiki, Pieria, Thassos, Samothrace and other parts of Northern Greece, but there is also an important part that has as its destination central Greece, the Ionian Islands, Evia, and elsewhere. The Evzoni border station is the main gateway for Central Europeans and Serbs.

Mainly tourists from Bulgaria, Romania, and in general from Eastern Europe cross through the Promachonas crossing . “While from Nymphaea and Ormenio the main volume of tourists comes from Bulgaria and Romania,” says Mr. Tassios.

The management of tourist flows in anticipation of the increase in the volume of tourists

Tourism professionals expect the large volume of tourists to start arriving by the end of June. At the same time, Romanians and Bulgarians are packing their bags, as Greece remains a consistently attractive destination, according to the head of the Romanian-Bulgarian EOT office, George Stafylakis.

“The visit of the Minister of Tourism, Haris Theocharis, and all the previous actions, left good impressions and created a positive atmosphere. There is a mood for people to travel and Greece is one of the most popular destinations. It is worth noting that both Romania and Bulgaria currently have a good epidemiological picture.

“The only issue that the tourist agents bring to me is the concern about delays at the border, due to the controls”, points out Mr. Stafylakis. Indicatively, he states that about 75% of Romanians travel by road and this trend due to pandemic seems to be increasing.

“At the end of June, when we expect a lot more arrivals, it is good to make sure that there is operational management that will improve the flow of tourists. As any bad image will slow down the reservations “, notes the president of POX and adds:” From the moment we tell the customers they have to have a negative molecular test or a vaccination certificate or a certificate of antibody testing, why should a rapid test be done again to all and not by sampling? Because at the moment, this is being done, control over everyone, regardless of nationality.”

According to Stavros Kalafatis, the Deputy Minister of Interior in charge of Macedonia-Thrace, speaking to AMNA, the opening of road tourism is an ongoing process. “You can see the effort of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis with the digital certificate, which was his proposal. The European Union embraced it and it quickly became a regulation. It is a very important tool for all countries, but it also helps our country in the development of tourism.”

Macedonia and Thrace rely on road tourism, the Deputy Minister points out, and for this reason there is constant contact with the Ministry of Tourism and the Ministry of Digital Governance, seeking the best possible arrangements, so that public health is protected and our neighbors come. and spend their holidays here safely. “We are on the same side with the world of tourism. After a teleconference I had a meeting with the representatives of the hoteliers and regional governors from all over Northern Greece, we resolved the issue of controlling the different covid tests and we continue. We are in constant contact with the people of Tourism for any issues that arise.

At the moment, the daily flows from the open border stations are smooth. “They increase, of course, on weekends, but the safety of both our tourists and our fellow citizens is paramount,” he notes.

At the same time, as Mr. Kalafatis emphasizes, the Macedonia and Thrace sector of the Ministry of Interior is in constant communication with the competent ministries, but also with the TPA, to start the ferry connection of Thessaloniki with the Northern Sporades, on June 17 . “In any case, the common assessment is that this year will be better than last year,” he said.

Upgrading of infrastructure and promotion plans for border crossings

A constant demand of tourism organizations and professionals is the upgrading of infrastructure at the land borders, as tourist flows are increasing year by year. The president of POX proposes to carry out works for the modernization of the border stations through the Recovery Fund.

However, the plan of the Hellenic Tourism Organization is to take actions for the promotion of road tourism destinations in cooperation with the Regions of Northern Greece. As the general secretary of EOT Dimitris Fraggakis points out, there is an idea to create a road map in combination with other promotional actions for the tourists who come by road.

“This is something that was recently discussed in a meeting I had with the Regional Governor of Central Macedonia Apostolos Tzitzikostas and the Mayor of Thessaloniki Konstantinos Zervas and in which we want to involve the other Regional Governors to plan a comprehensive long-term promotion strategy for this product,” said Mr Fraggakis.