Tourism Minister expresses optimism for 2022 in FT interview

The Minister of Tourism, Vassilis Kikilias, expresses reasonable optimism for the next tourist season in an interview with the Financial Times.

“Having met most airlines and tourism providers in the UK, we can only be very optimistic about 2022,” he said. He pointed out that “in 2022 Greece expects 35% more visitors from the United Kingdom compared to 2021”.

Mr. Kikilias emphasizes that Greece, whose 25% of GDP comes from tourism, was one of the first European countries to open in 2020, taking a calculated risk that paid off, gaining the confidence of travelers that it is a safe destination. . He also noted that the summer tourist season will begin in March 2022, earlier than any other year.

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“The risk we took in 2020 paid off. We installed more health workers in the Health structures of islands and popular tourist destinations, we connected doctors with each hotel unit and we followed our strict health protocols. “The Greek government has also decided to allocate 320 million euros from the RRF to strengthen the infrastructure of island and continental destinations in the country”, Mr. Kikilias emphasizes.

The statements of the Minister of Tourism are hosted in a report of the newspaper entitled “British airlines increase their flights to Greece, in anticipation of the country’s tourism boom.”

The report refers to the recent agreements with Jet2 and EasyJet, which provide for an increase in available airline seats to Greece, with the addition of more flights and destinations. He characterizes the agreements as a clear indication of the faith with which the country’s travel industry expects the total restoration of Greek tourism in 2022.

According to the newspaper, according to the data of the largest tour operators, bookings to Greece for the summer of 2022 in October had exceeded the level of bookings of the corresponding period for the summer of 2019, with travelers tending to spend savings accumulated during lockdowns in higher quality accommodations.