Greece is expected to become the main destination for travellers from Balkan countries, with the number of road arrivals from these countries surging by 40 per cent compared to 2022.
According to Tourism Media and Events, the Balkan market mainly consisting of Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia will be able to visit the Mediterranean country after almost three years of inactivity due to COVID-19 travel restrictions, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
Balkan countries are the main and only ones to visit Greece via road tourism, which was slow to recover over the past few years, especially compared to air travel which was quick to reach pre-pandemic levels in 2022 alone.
Furthermore, 2.4 million visitors reached Greece by road between January and June of 2022, almost half (41.3 per cent) of the four million recorded during the same period in pre-pandemic levels, which accounts for 1.7 million fewer arrivals.
Between January and November 2022, Greece welcomed 7.6 million visitors via road – 35.7 per cent fewer visitors than in 2019 when 11.8 million travellers were recorded in the country.
Road Show events, which collected feedback from all three Balkan countries, reveal that demand for Greece this summer is high and even airlines in Serbia and Romania are working to increase flights and establish flight schedules to the Mediterranean country.
The World Travel and Tourism Commission (WTTC) has awarded Greece as the Champion of tourism in 2021, with the authority highly acclaiming the successful and effective way that the Mediterranean country managed the COVID-19 pandemic and tried to maintain its tourism rates.
Following this event, Greece was named the Best Tourism Destination for 2023 at the Grand Travel Awards in Norway, during which, Greek authorities announced their intentions to receive more Norwegian tourists.
“What characteristic makes our country attractive to Norwegians? Is it just the sea and the sun, the sandy beaches, the gastronomy, the nature, the culture, and the scattered monuments and archaeological sites that transform the country into an “open-air museum?” the Head of GNTO’s Scandinavia and Baltic States branch, Pavlos Mourmas said.
Similarly, the Tourism Minister of Greece, Vasilis Kikilias noted that his country is expecting to have a robust tourism season in 2023, with over one million American tourists potentially visiting Greece, as the two countries have established direct airlines, facilitating transportation for these overseas markets.
According to Kikilias, Greece remains behind pre-pandemic levels in terms of tourist arrivals by 1.9 per cent, while in January 2023, 1.45 million passengers were recorded in the country – 87.2 per cent more than in 2022 and five per cent more than in 2019, when no COVID-19 travel restrictions were imposed.
Source: Schengen visa info