The numbers of tourist arrivals in Greece do not reflect the real situation, Lysandros Tsilidis, the president of the Federation of Hellenic Associations of Tourist and Travel Agencies (FedHATTA) told “Naftemporiki”, when he was asked about the development of tourist traffic in our country.
More specifically, he explained that there is no proper registration of the visitors who have arrived in Greece and no one knows exactly how many days they came and stayed.
There is also the issue of visitors from non-EU countries who travel through the EU and nobody is aware if they are visitors from India or other countries.
Moreover, he said that cruise passengers are recorded as visitors although they do not stay overnight in Greece, with consequences for the Greek economy.
In response to a question about the work of the travel agencies in Greece, Tsilidis pointed out that the Greek market had significant problems and consequently this has affected the operational work of the tourist offices.
Citing official figures, he said that 18.9 million international arrivals were recorded in January-August 2024, surpassing the levels of January-August 2023 (17.5 million) by 8.0%. In fact, 4.5 million arrivals were recorded in August 2024, marking an increase of +7.4% or 311,000 additional arrivals compared to the corresponding month of 2023.
