The high levels of customer traffic in the Duty Free Shops in Greek airports send optimistic messages regarding this year's tourist season.
More specifically, the Greek Minister of Tourism Vassilis Kikilias said in an interview with Action24 that there is an evident increase in travellers' spending in Duty Free Shops. He remarked that in the first 16 days of June, this spending noted a 19% increase compared to the corresponding period of 2019.
"This was preceded by a lot of hard work during autumn and winter, as was done in the previous two years at the health ministry during the pandemic, in order for the average Greek family to have revenues and prosper," Kikilias said, referring to the positive results of the ministry's strategy, which are reflected in the data published by the Bank of Greece (BoG), which demonstrated impressive increases in arrivals and travel spending last April.
Kikilias highlighted that initiatives such as the 9 daily, direct flights from the US, the door-to-door policy and newly sealed agreements with major tour operators abroad, have rendered Greece the 5th tourist brand worldwide, making it the number 1 destination for the French and Romanians, the second country in the choices of travellers from the Scandinavian countries and positionining it in the top three vacation preferences of Germans and Britons.