In another indication of how bad the tourism year was for Greece in 2012 as it suffered through social and political unrest, Athens International Airport officials said passenger traffic fell 10 percent, from 14.4 million to 12.9 million people.
International passenger traffic fell 12 percent to 8.4 million and domestic travelers dropped 7.9 percent to 4.5 million. The decrease can be “mainly attributed to the country’s overall critical political and financial situation and the respective negative impact” on travel, the airport said.
According to Bloomberg, tourism, Greece’s biggest industry, accounted for almost 16 percent of gross domestic product and almost one in five jobs in 2011, figures backed up by the London-based World Travel and Tourism Council. An economic contraction, continued images of strikes, protests and riots and two battle-weary elections last year gave an unsavory international presentation about Greece for many would-be visitors.
International arrivals at the country’s 15 airports that account for as much as 95 percent of all foreign arrivals in Greece by air declined 3.3 percent to 11.3 million last year, the Athens-based Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises said in a separate statement. Kavala, in the north, had the biggest decline with international arrivals, falling 15 percent.
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