Athens and Santorini Most Popular Greek Tourist Destinations

Predictions made by leading tour operators concerning this year’s tourist arrivals in Greece are coming true. This summer Greece is expected to welcome about 20 million tourists. Approximately 187,000 more tourists visited Greece via airplane this May compared to May 2013.  Greek towns of Kalamata, Corfu, Skiathos, Samos and Zakynthos showed an increase of 20 percent. According to data released by the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises SETE, tourist arrivals in most Greek airports has increased this month compared to the same month last year. A big rise was also observed in Athens since 76,446 more tourists arrived this year at Athens International airport.  A total of 331,000 tourists arrived in Athens, indicating a 30 percent increase. Macedonia Airport in Thessaloniki also showed a 7 percent increase, since 145,565 more tourists landed in the airport in comparison to last year. Rhodes also showed a 10.3 percent increase this year since 27,873 more tourists visited the island. Furthermore, Kos showed an 8 percent increase. Cretan cities of Heraklion and Chania also showed an increase of 6.5 and 9 percent respectively hosting 328,778 and 124,834 more tourists this year. Santorini island may be considered among the most expensive Greek destinations, but tourists still go for it. The island’s airport welcomed 32,003 tourists this May; 27.2 percent more than last year. Travelers seem to have a special preference towards Ionian islands as well. The arrivals in Corfu, Zakynthos and Kefalonia airports showed an increase of 11.2, 18.1 and 11.4 percent respectively.  

READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT greece.greekreporter.com