Seven Greek Cities Listed on List of Europe’s Top 10 Most Resilient Destinations for Travel

On a list of Europe’s Top 10 Most Resilient Destinations for Summer Travel released this week, seven of the cities are Greek.

The list compares each destination by the reduction in confirmed travel bookings by destination to the pre-pandemic period.

The island of Mykonos crowns the tops of the list, with summer bookings currently standing at 54.9% of what they were at the equivalent point, pre-COVID.

Mykonos is followed by the Spanish island, Ibiza, where bookings are at 49.2%.

The next eight destinations in order of resilience are Chania, Greece 48.9%, Thira, Greece 48.1%, Kerkyra, Greece 47.5%, Thessaloniki , Greece, 43.7%, Palma de Mallorca, Spain 41.2%, Heraklion, Greece 36.6%, Athens, Greece 33.2% and Faro, Portugal 32.8%.

Greece clearly leads the way as one of the most resilient destinations in Europe this summer according to the research published jointly by travel analytics firm ForwardKeys and non-profit organisation European Cities Marketing (ECM), which implies that the key to reviving international travel lies in vaccination developments.

Data shows that Greece and Iceland, which are both set to welcome vaccinated visitors this summer, have seen inbound flight bookings pick up.

“Vaccinations appear to hold the key to reviving international travel, as countries that make clear promises to welcome vaccinated travelers are being rewarded by strong surges in flight bookings. We are seeing a revival of confidence in outbound travel from countries where there has been a successful rollout of Covid-19 vaccines too,” said Olivier Ponti, VP Insights, ForwardKeys.

“If restrictions are eased in both origin markets and destinations, there are grounds for further optimism because there is strong pent-up demand and, during the pandemic, people have shown themselves willing to make bookings at significantly shorter notice than they used to,” added Ponti.

Last November, three Greek cities – Athens, Thessaloniki and Heraklio – were among ForwardKey’s top 10 cities in Europe showing resilience.

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