Greece Expects Over 1 Million American Travellers in 2023 Due to More Direct Flights With USA
Greece is expected to welcome more than one million American travellers and over €1billion in revenue from direct flights with the United States for the upcoming tourist season.
In a press release issued on Friday, January 27, the Greek Ministry of Tourism has revealed that from March 11 this year, the first Delta flight from New York will start operating, while 56 flights per week from the USA and Canada have also been announced, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
In this regard, Greek Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias said that with the progress of winter and spring, more flights would be added.
“From March 11, Delta’s first flight from New York is coming and – pay attention – so far, 56 flights per week from the USA and Canada have already been announced. As the winter and spring progresses, more flights will be added,” the Minister said.
He also emphasised that the picture that exists regarding the number of bookings is excellent, where the progress of 2023 is expected to be better than that of last year.
According to the Minister, when American travellers come to visit Greece, they stay longer in Athens.
In November of last year, Minister Kikilias revealed that the income from Greek tourism had exceeded €18 billion in 2022.
Commenting on these data, he pointed out that in some areas of Greece, income from arrivals and trips had increased compared to the period before the pandemic.
Greek authorities also indicated that tourism receipts last October reached €1.5 billion, surpassing October 2019 by 3.3 per cent.
As Kikilias explains, such a result was achieved due to the increase in arrivals from important markets, which include +69.2 per cent from Great Britain, +10.6 per cent from Germany and + six per cent from France.
At the same time, arrivals from countries such as the US with +12.3 per cent, France with +28.1 per cent and the United Kingdom with +83.2 per cent, also had impressive growth.
Recently, the overall satisfaction index has also shown that Greece remains one of the main preferred destinations for tourists worldwide, according to which in the first 11 months of 2022, Greece has accumulated a rate of 87 per cent followed by Cyprus with 85.6 per cent.
Moreover, the data provided by Fraport for the travel traffic of 2022 revealed that during this period, 31 million passengers were registered at the regional airports of Greece.
According to Minister Kikilia, the year that went along with its recorded figures has confirmed the success of the tourism industry and the strengthening of the national economy, adding that this year’s season is expected to be strong despite the objective difficulties.
