Omens from air seat plans not good for new tourism season

The first signs regarding Greece's foreign visitor numbers this year are not positive, suggesting that those who have been predicting zero growth at best from last year could turn out to be right. A retreat from 2018's record 33 million tourists and 16 billion euros in tourism revenues appears likely.

Early though it may be too early to deduce any safe conclusions about the course of tourism in 2019, provisional data on airline seat planning for flights to Greece for the rest of the year showed a decline last month compared to January 2018, when there had been an increase from January 2017. This means that the carriers flying tourists to Greece are adjusting to demand and reducing their seat availability from last year. Sources that have monitored these figures for years tell Kathimerini that this is the first time in several years that there has been a decline in seat...