Tourism

With less than two months to go before the start of the summer tourist season, industry operators are worried about the final number of workers who will drive Greece's heaviest industry forward. After all, this year was preceded by a difficult 2023 with significant labor shortages.

A 200 million-euro investment for the development of a complex tourism accommodation with a six-star hotel in Agrari in Mykonos is being promoted by German-owned Southrock Property Company Eleven.

Southrock is the Greek subsidiary of the Otto business group based in Hamburg, Germany and is the operator of the investment.

Eurostat's latest data unveiled a promising trend in the European Union's tourism sector, indicating a robust recovery from the shadows cast by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the report released on Friday, the total number of nights spent in tourist accommodations across the EU soared to nearly 3 billion in 2023.

Türkiye aims to attract at least 7 million tourists from Germany alone this year, when it hopes to welcome 60 million foriegn visitors, Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Ersoy has said.

The year has seen a dynamic start in the purchase and sale of hotels, as well as the promotion of investment plans for the development of tourism complexes.

Demand expectations by Greek hoteliers reached a historic high in the two months of January and February, in contrast to the rest of the Mediterranean market.

Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Queer Destinations tourism company on Thursday to promote Greece as a friendly destination for LGBTQ+ people.

The Greek property market is this year observing a shift of foreign holiday home buyers to areas that are less popular, but at the same time do not lag behind in natural beauty - quite the opposite.

US travelers are proving the fastest growing national group of tourists. Not only are they increasing at rates of more than 10% per year, but the average per capita expenditure per trip is at least 50% higher than any other nationality.

Last year was a record year for Greek tourism, with the latest statistics showing a remarkable comeback for the sector from the years of lockdowns during the pandemic.

While these trends are welcome, there are also some worrying signs, as 2023 saw an increasing use of the term "over tourism".