According to the latest report from the South Aegean Tourism Initiative (SATI), the South Aegean islands welcomed more visitors than ever before for October. Some 3 million people plus visitors travelled to the region, breaking the previous record set for October in 2019.
SATI said October 2021 broke all records shattering expectations. The report says the airports at Karpathos, Kos, Mykonos, Rhodes, and Santorini handled 412,771 passengers last month compared to 357,608. This represented a 15% increase over October 2019 numbers. The report showed Santorini recording a 55 percent increase in October compared to the same month in pre-pandemic 2019.
Rhodes and the other South Aegean Islands also registered big gains. Interestinglt, the SATI numbers do not even include ferry passengers to these islands, so the figures are likely much higher. Connecting flights from Athens were also not included.
Mykonos and Santorini more than tripled 2020 traffic this year with 360,198 (2021) compared to 133,456 (2020) and 471,017 against 141,472, respectively. The other islands showed similar increases.
Established in January 2021 by the regions governor, George Hatzimarkos, the South Aegean Tourism Initiative is a body made up of tourism, trade and hotel stakeholders and their relevant associations and chambers.
Source: GTP