Deputy Tourism Min.: 2022 will be a record-breaking year

Speaking to ANT1 channel, the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Sofia Zacharaki, expressed her satisfaction with the figures of the tourist season so far and her optimism for the near future.

As Ms. Zacharaki said, 1 million tourist arrivals are expected every week in the next period, with the British leading the way, as so far Greece has welcomed around 200,000 every week.

The Brits are followed by tourists from Germany, France, Italy and the Balkan countries. This year there is a large increase in tourists from Romania who head mainly to northern Greece, compensating to a large extent the decrease in tourists from Russia and Ukraine due to war.

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A record-breaking year

Ms. Zacharaki underscored that so far, the data show that in 2022 there will also be record revenues from tourism, surpassing 2019 which was the reference year and in which revenues from tourism reached 18 billion euros.

There is a lot of mobility this year from tourists from North America, who even stay longer, more than 10 days, but also spend more money than Europeans.

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Ms. Zacharaki also said that as regards the “Tourism for All” program for Greek citizens, in addition to the 200,000 beneficiaries that have already been designated, in September there will be another 200,000 beneficiaries.

Also regarding the issue of the extension of the tourism season, the Deputy Minister of Tourism said that reservations show that this year the “wager” will be won, bringing as an example cruises and especially Thessaloniki, where there is a scheduled arrival of a cruise ship even on December 20! She added that in 2021 there were 11 cruise ship arrivals at the port of Thessaloniki, but this year there will be 60.