Greek tourism’s bid to bag last-minute bookings sends arrivals higher

The discounts and special packages that Greek tourism enterprises offered foreign markets to make the most of last-minute bookings, combined with big drops experienced by rival destinations, such as Turkey, led to an increase in air arrivals for Greece in the first nine months of the year, according to the Association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE).

International arrivals by air increased by 7.6 percent, or 1.06 million, this year to end-September compared to the same period last year, while road arrivals fell 1.3 percent, or 129,000.

Still, SETE says the vast majority of tourism firms will record losses this year due to excessive taxation.