Greece’s Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias is returning home from a recent visit to Stockholm, Sweden. According to the minister, the Swedish market will be upping support for Greek tourism into autumn with a keen interest in sports-related holidays.
Kikilias, who’s been on a road trip that passed through Berlin, Paris, and Vienna (with his counterpart Susanne Winkler via Instagram below), met in Stockholm with the Association of Swedish Travel Agents and Tour Operators, executives from major tour operators specializing in the Nordic market. The operators included agencies like Apollo, Air Tours, Eurowings, Nordic Leisure Travel Group, Orient Tours, and SAS. According to the minister, he also met with the Swedish Association for Senior Citizens on this trip.
This latest effort to extend Greece’s tourism season focused on presenting Greece as a logical and welcoming winter destination for the older generation. Kikilias’ efforts are concentrated logically since a big part of Scandinavian tourism is oriented toward alt-tourism.
According to local tour operators, flights to Greece approached 97 percent of capacity this year. Kikilias says the Scandinavians have expressed interest in off-season tourism focused on thematic tourism for golf, outdoors, and cycling packages, to name a few. Scandinavians are looking to participate in these and other activities on Crete, Rhodes, the Peloponnese, and Epirus. Kikilias also spoke about the potential for new investments in the hotel industry from interested parties during his tour.
He added that October is almost totally booked where travel packages are concerned. He says airlines have already extended their itineraries to meet the new demand.
Greece’s tourism decision-makers have been courting alt-tourism enthusiasts to try and extend what has largely been a summer-only industry in Greece. Kikilias, to his credit, seems to have made the most progress in this area.