Greece’s busiest-ever tourist season continues to get better with news that there was a 9.28 percent rise in air arrivals, mirroring that of arrivals via ship. Some 6,887,532 people have flown into Greece so far this season with the country on target to see 17 million visitors.
The data came from Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE) and gave a boosts to the country’s beleaguered economy although the per capita spending figures haven’t been totaled yet.
The biggest rise was noted at the airport of Kalamata where the arrivals of foreign passengers recorded a rise by 43.51 percent. Chania followed with 20.25 percent while in the third position stood the most popular Greek island of Santorini. In contrast, in Athens, Samos and Skiathos arrivals dropped as stated in the same announcement.
The arrivals in Athens reached 1,438,886 presenting a drop of 0.43 percent. In absolute numbers, Athens maintains primacy, but Heraklion is just a breath away as the arrivals in this city of Crete recorded an increase of 17.03 percent and reached 1,340,889.
The arrivals at both the two international airports of Crete (those of Heraklion International Airport, Nikos Kazantzakis and Chania International Airport Ioannis Daskalogiannis) reached 1,828,213 representing 26.54 percent of the total arrivals.
Regarding arrivals, Crete and Rhodes are the heavy weapons of the Greek tourism industry as in those two islands it was noted up to 40.6 percent of the total air arrivals.
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