It comes as no surprise that Greece has become one of Australia’s favourite holiday destinations with the stunning Cycladic islands leading the way in luxury travel!
This week Sydney hosted the Luxperience exhibition, which was held at the International Convention Centre at Darling Harbour. Greek companies Luxury Greece DMC, Fly Me To The Moon, Santo Maris Oia Luxury Suites & Spa, Argo Travel, NJV Athens Plaza and Myconian Collection made their way over to Australia, to take part in the event and spent three days discussing their exclusive services with Australian travel agencies.
The Trade Commissioner of Greece in Australia, Mrs. Katia Gzikiza attended the exhibition on Wednesday, October 9, and welcomed the Greek exhibitors to Sydney, while addressing the impressive record-breaking number of international visitors making their way to Greece each year.
“This is an important message that these Greek companies bring to Australia because they represent luxury tourism in Greece and we want to show that we are interested in having more cooperation with the tourism industry in Australia, especially when it comes to luxury travel,” said Mrs. Gkikiza.
Greece’s Trade Commissioner also shared some recent data regarding Greece’s tourism arrivals, revealing that in 2018 the country's international arrival numbers hit a staggering 33.1 million visitors.
“Concerning Australian arrivals to Greece, until the year 2016, these numbers were stable between 120 and 180,000 people. In 2017, they almost doubled to over 324,000 and we thought this was a spike from the usual trend, but this was repeated the following year, and again the data we currently have for the year 2019 shows that this trend has continued. So we are constantly at about the 300,000 mark,” added Mrs. Gkikiza.
Australian visitors are also at the top when it comes to spending money in Greece with the Trade Commissioner noting that Aussie tourists spent an average of 1200 euros per person, which is more than double the average spend of tourists from other countries in the world. Investment in accommodation, in particular, five-star luxury hotels and resorts has also seen a spike in numbers in the last few years.
The increased attraction to Greece was supported by a study released this week by SETE Intelligence (INSETE), which revealed that Australia along with the US and Canada, were the top source markets for Greece over the 2016-2018 period, recording the highest rises in the number of arrivals, overnights, and revenue.
According to the study titled “An X-ray of Greece’s 26 Biggest Inbound Tourism Markets 2016-2018”, the number of arrivals from Australia increased by 91 percent, with overnights going up by 105 percent and revenue was also up by 99 percent. INSETE analysts examined Greece’s 26 largest source markets, which accounted for 92 percent of total tourism revenue for 2018.
Greek City Times spoke with the Greek exhibitors at Luxperience who said they were keen to work closely with Australian travel agencies to ensure more visitors from Down Under make their way over to the Aegean, while also pointing out that their aim is to try and show tourists a piece of Greece that is as authentic as possible, even when it comes to hot spots such as Mykonos, Santorini, and Athens.
*Images by Greek City Times (Copyright)
