Tourist arrivals in Greece rose by 6.8 pct in the first five months of 2007, the Institute for Tourism Research and Forecasts (ITEP) said on Thursday, adding that the growth rate was satisfactory.

The Institute, in a report said, however, that the country’s competitors recorded almost double growth rates, with Croatia up 12.4 pct, Turkey 14.9 pct and Egypt 14.2 pct, while other tourist destinations such as Italy, Spain and Portugal recorded smaller growth rates (5.9 pct, 2.3 pct and 0.9 pct, respectively) and Cyprus recorded a 5.1 pct decline.

ITEP stressed that the growth figures so far this year was leading to forecasts of a growth rate of more than 7.0 pct in 2007, although it underlined that tourist arrivals were not equally distributed around the country, with Athens-Thessaloniki-Kavala-Rhodes and Crete showing strong growth figures, while the rest of the country was facing a “chaos”. The Ionian islands were suffering a decline in arrivals, while East and North Aegean islands and the Peloponese were hit by a recession.

Source: Athens News Agency

^
top

print this page   send this page