Tourism

There are many ways to get to know a city, but few are as informative or interesting as a guided tour with experts and insiders.

The Turkish international tourism business has suffered badly due to regional political developments. The unrest and civil war in neighboring countries including Iraq and Syria have had a spillover effect on Turkey, which as a tourist destination is no longer perceived to be as safe as it once was.

Tourism is expected to improve in 2017, Culture and Tourism Minister Nabi Avcı has said, noting that tourism indicators, especially in the Russian market, were rising after Turkey's tourism industry experienced a crisis in 2016.

Alternate Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura met with the King of Spain, Felipe VI in Madrid during the International Tourism Fair (FITUR). The Greek Tourism Organisation (GTO) is participating in the conference with a kiosk in an effort to strengthen tourism flows from Spain to Greece for the 2017 season. Mrs.

According to the Bank of Greece’s (BoG) final data for the 9-monthly term on major indices in Greek tourism, the average spending of tourists per trip fell by approximately 300 million euros (13.2%) in comparison to 2015.

The data, published by Kathimerini, showed there was a 1 billion-euro decline in tourism revenue in the first 9 months of 2015.

Turkey's tourism sector, which has been hit by several factors, needs four years to rebound, according to a leading sector representative. 

"The next six months will matter a lot. For a full recovery, we need at least four years on the condition that all the conditions go well," said the head of the Hotel Association Turkey (TÜROB), Timur Bayındır. 

Online hotel rates in Athens are showing a marginal increase in the first month of the year, according to data analyzed by the Trivago travel website.

The average rate per night for a double room in the capital this month is 78 euros, while the average in 50 European cities that Trivago records comes to 103 euros.

Outgoing Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova is of the opinion that the number of Russian tourists to Bulgaria could increase by 40% in 2017.

Angelkova commented on the topic to Focus agency during a working visit to Moscow.

As many as 8 million tourists will have officially visited Bulgaria at the end of January, counting from February, outgoing Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova has said.

Angelkova has told the Bulgarian National Television every month of 2016 was "unprecented" in the number of arrivals to the country.

The latest official figures for tourism in Greece last year point to a decline in revenues and per capita spending, despite the increase in the number of visitors in 2016.