While the world’s tourists are anxious to travel in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, fears over the coronavirus still make most tourists reluctant. A report by Kathimerini showed that even though most travelers trust Greece as a safe destination, Covid-19 fears still hamper tourism’s recovery.
Kathimerini surveyed 3,000 people in the US, UK, Germany, France, and Italy, which are all source markets for Greece in an effort to guage trust in travel. The survey taken on June 25th by Athens-based tourism marketing company Mindhaus in collaboration with Pollfish research, the study found that though the majority trust Greece with regard to Covid-19 management, only one in four plan to visit before September.
More specifically:
- 70.9 percent of those polled said they want to travel abroad, a number which is up by 4.4 percent from 66 percent in a previous study conducted on May 13-14,
- 24.7 percent said they consider it more likely to make an international leisure trip within the next quarter (July – September). 32.9 percent said they might travel from October to the end of the year,
- 63.9 percent surveyed said they consider Greece to be among the most attractive destinations in the Mediterranean for trips in June-August 2020. In addition, two in three participants saying Greece handled the Covid crisis effectively. Up by 9.9 percent compared to the previous study in May,
- Compared with the May study, those surveyed showed the intention to visit Greece on their next trip increased by 20.37 percent for the French market (13.59 percent of responses), 9.76 percent for the US market (11.25 percent of responses), 9.21 percent for the German market (12.93 percent of responses), and 5.86 percent for the UK market (12.1 percent of responses).
Theofilos Kyratsoulis, general manager Mindhaus said he thinks the situation means Greece tourism will only achieve about 15% of the revenue of last year. He went on to say demand will remain low as long as the pandemic is underway worldwide.
Source: GTP
