Greece set for another record year in tourism

Good news for Greece: the country is set to reach a second consecutive tourism record after six years of recessions and struggles. Tourism in Greece, which accounts for about one-sixth of the economy, has been lacking in recent years but picked back up in 2013.

Photographer: Arcaid/UIG via Getty Images

Bloomberg reports that Andreas Andreadis, president of the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises, has made some positive predictions:

"Forecasts show 2014 will be another record year. As many as 18.5 million tourists will visit Greece this year, compared with 17.9 million in 2013, generating 13 billion euros [$18 billion] in revenue. Almost all traditional and new markets are showing positive, encouraging signs."

Pre-booking figures indicate Greece can expect more tourists from Germany and France this year and a ten percent rise in visitors from the U.K., according to the most recent figures from SETE. More Germans visit Greece than any other nationality, followed by the U.K., the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, France and Russia.

Tourism accounted for 16.4 percent of Greek gross domestic product in 2012, according to World Travel and Tourism Council figures. Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has called the country’s tourist industry:

“[T]he first locomotive that started and began to pull our economy out of a painful six-year recession.” 

The Greek economy has recently seen unemployment reach a record 28 percent, but hopes these increase in tourism will remedy much of this. If Greece beats a target of 24 million visitors by 2021 it would add nine percentage points in GDP while creating 300,000 jobs. SETE, a non-governmental, non-profit organisation that represents unions of tourism enterprises and entrepreneurs that are directly or indirectly involved in Tourism, expects that about one million people will work in the industry by 2021.

SETE is also in talks with the Greek government about public-private industry initiatives, according to Andreadis. He added that monuments, museums and other antiquities sites should remain under state protection.