Greek tourism in 2014

A good year for Greece …

Last year, the Greek tourism market had seen as a result of a variety of factors (such as f. e. the stabilization of the situation in Greece, the international, political development, etc.) and due to the intense efforts by the competent Greek institutions a very positive development. An increase of over 15% was achieved in comparison to the previous year. The Greek tourism market, however, seems to top this again in 2014. The forecast for this year provides that 18.5 million tourists will visit Greece (2013 there were 17.8 million), which would mean a further increase of about 4%. It should be emphasized, that in addition to the increase in visitors from the classical visiting countries, new regions were opened up. So the number of visitors from Russia and China but also from the USA increased immensely. The current political development in the Ukraine will indeed may affect the numbers, but the trend is likely to remain positive.

Hotel real estate – currently

The positive trend that can be observed for some time, had already led many investors – in some cases with the help of funding from the Greek government –  to modernize or expand existing hotels in order to meet the needs of the many new international visitors. Also, some new hotels have emerged in Greece. The flagship examples are for example the Hotel Nikki Resort in Porto Heli and the expansion of the luxury Eleon resorts on Zakynthos, where Mavvidis + Partners also worked on. In any case, the Greek hotel landscape has not yet greatly changed compared to previous years. There is therefore still much needed and thus great potential. I had a few months ago already reported about the potential in the field of tourism real estate (see my adequate article here). The current forecast predicts that by 2020 the number of tourists will exceed the 21 million mark. So, one can calculate the resulting demand. It should also be mentioned that the demand has changed in recent years. A multi-faceted demand is established. Specifically, this mean that we now have a large mass of tourists who want an all-inclusive package with a variety of special services, but on the other hand there is also a demand for individual and highly luxurious hotels and services. Incidentally, there is now being demand for special holiday form. Especially in the sector of the luxury hotels package there is an immense catching up; but also for the category of all-inclusive packages a strong adjustment would be required. For the special holiday forms, however, the respective domiciles are till now in many case even not developed. 

International investors

The interest of many international investors for Greece is already large and continues to expand. In an article I had described a few months ago the circumstances for an investment in Greece (see this article here). These circumstances have improved further in recent months. The situation should now be assessed as stable, the location risk is minimal and the potential huge. Meanwhile, the real estate market has become more interesting for private individuals who have bought in the last months holiday homes in Greece, and have virtually so benefited from the existing opportunity.

It is now the “very last train” if you want to benefit from the crisis-induced circumstances. The recovery of the Greek economy is already very close. The Greek banks are slowly starting the financing of projects. By now even the main skeptics should look to Greece. They will not get again in the near future odds like the existing!

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If you have any further questions on the topic, then do not hesitate to contact us here (contact Mavvidis + Partners).