According to the Israeli Embassy, more than 100,000 Israeli tourists visited Greece last month. The embassy also said the number of flights to Greece is being increased accordingly, to accommodate demand. This news, and investment potential and trends, is a ray of sunshine where a few months ago dark clouds loomed.
As of Monday, there were four daily flights to Athens and Rhodes, 1 daily flight to Iraklio, three weekly flights to Corfu, Thessaloniki, and Crete’s Chania, two weekly flights to Zakynthos, Karpathos, Mykonos, and Kos, and one flight per week to Preveza, Lefkada, and Kalamata.
Israeli Embassy spokespersons told AMNA that the increased tourism shows “a warm summer in the friendship between our two countries.”
The numbers reflect a kind of Israel travel frenzy that was reported by Haaretz last month. “Welcome to the Craziest Travel Season Ever” told of travelers willing to pay almost any price to get from Israel to destinations like Paphos, and Hersonissos on Crete. The authors dubbed the rush for tickets as a kind of “revenge travel” trend, owed to the COVID pandemic lockdowns.
According to that report, places like Rhodes, Crete, Kos, and the Carpathians in Romania were selling well back in early June. In 2019, 150,000 Israelis visited Greece, and a new so-called “charm offensive” by both sides seems to be paying off. We reported previously on Israeli-owned Brown Hotels announcing the opening of their latest property, Isla Brown Corinthia. The good Israeli tourist news is not the only positive trend for Greece coming out of Israel.
Meanwhile, a housing crisis is also driving Israeli investors to sink money into Greek real estate, which does not hurt touristic flows either. Also, the looming Cyprus-Greece-European Union energy linkage taking shape sheds still more positive light on potential cooperation. In that news, the EU earmarked 657 million euros for the construction of the 2,000-megawatt EuroAsia Interconnector underwater electricity cable to link the power grids of Israel, Cyprus, and Greece together.
According to the Henley Global Citizens Report, which tracks private wealth and investment migration trends, Greece is one of the Top 10 countries attracting investments from high-net-worth individuals (HNWIs). Taken together, the news is absolutely positive for all those in Greece dependent on tourism.
