Road tourism recorded an impressive increase in Greece, particularly in Northern Greece, in January-April, according to a survey by the Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation (SETE-INSETE).
The Associations of hoteliers of the most popular destinations of Northern Greece saw a recovery in tourist arrivals compared to last year’s decrease in pre-bookings and bookings of road tourists from the Balkans, mainly from Romania. However, the hoteliers are worried over long delays at the land borders, which are expected to worsen in the peak tourist season.
Confirming “Naftemporiki’s” article early March about a recovery in road arrivals this year, after last year’s decline, INSETE Intelligence statistics showed a 76.6% increase for April and an overall increase of 85.1% for the first four months of the year, with 1.7 million road arrivals compared to 902,000 in the corresponding period last year.
Arrivals from Turkey recorded an impressive increase, rising to 212,577 compared to 61,125 in the first four months of last year (247% increase), as well as from North Macedonia (114% increase). An 82.7% increase in road visitors from Bulgaria was also recorded as well as a 38.1% increase from Albania.
However, hoteliers of Northern Greece, especially Pieria, underlined that the region has lost the higher-income tourists from the neighboring Balkan countries, due to long delays at the land borders.
