The German tourism industry is cautiously optimistic about stronger demand for Greece this year after the slump in 2012 and is expanding capacity.
Greece hopes for sunnier times this year. Many Germans stayed away from the Mediterranean destination last year due to concerns about safety and transportation services. German arrivals in Greece dropped nearly 8% to 1.55 million as a result, according to fvw figures. Michael Karavás, head of specialist tour operator Attika Reisen, said the 2012 season was “a catastrophe” while TUI ended with a single-digit fall in bookings. Overall, however, rising numbers of Turkish, Israeli and Russia holidaymakers helped save the season for Greece.
Now German tour operators are hopeful about a turnaround this year and are expanding capacity to drive demand. FTI, for example, has expanded its flight capacity to the islands of Corfu, Crete and Rhodes by about 55% and added a large number of new hotels. Attika Reisen has expanded its offering to some 780 hotels.
TUI is expanding its portfolio of own branded hotels, including two new resorts on Kos, for its third most important destination (after Spain and Turkey) while in-house carrier TUIfly has expanded capacity. “We see a good chance for the country to make a comeback,” said Markus Bruchmüller, TUI Germany’s head of product management for the eastern Mediterranean. “Although hoteliers are battling with rising costs, we have managed to keep prices stable for 2013 with their support.” Budget brand 1-2-Fly has even reduced prices for Greece.
Rewe Touristik, which is offering the new LTI hotels on Rhodes and Crete as well as a new Primasol property on Rhodes, is seeing higher bookings for its top-selling hotels in Greece. “As long as the negative headlines stay away then we can catch up again compared to last year,” said tourism director Rolf-Dieter Maltzahn.
Similarly, Alltours, which has a strong Greece programme, is hopeful for a recovery this year. “We have expanded our programme significantly,” said Michael Nickel, responsible for Greece hotel procurement. Among German leisure airlines, Condor has added flights to Skiathos and Mykonos, but Air Berlin has reduced its Greece capacity for summer 2013 due to weak demand.
Meanwhile the new promotion organisation Marketing Greece is relying on the private sector to support its planned advertising activities due to the weak state of public finances in the crisis-hit country. The Greek tourism association SETE has raised about 85% of the funding for planned marketing campaigns that could be launched for the 2014 season. At the same time Hotels-fairy.com UK's biggest hotel price comparison website website has chosen Greece as it top destination for summer 2013.
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