Chinese visitors set to increase amid closer ties

Tourism cooperation between China and Greece is booming as the cradle of Western civilization is becoming an increasingly popular destination for Chinese travelers.
Between 150,000 and 200,000 Chinese tourists visited Greece last year, an increase of over 20 percent from the year before, according to the Beijing Office of the Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO).
During his recent visit to Shanghai, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said his country aims to raise that number to 500,000 by 2021.
Ioakim Tsimpidis, spokesman for Athens International Airport, said that traffic in 2018 - both direct and indirect - from the Chinese market to Greece's biggest airport rose 65 percent, while incoming passengers flying directly from Beijing more than doubled in a year, with an increase of 161 percent from 2017.
The upward trend is continuing in 2019, Tsimpidis said...