Greece is already a popular holiday destination with its ancient history and incredible islands, but the country?s tourism minister has shared how lesser known regions became popular with international tourists this year.
Speaking at the virtual World Travel Market, Harry Theoharis, tourism minister, said that even before the pandemic visitors were exploring the north of the country - far from its traditional major tourist destinations - which had seen an increase in drive-through tourism where people travel in their cars. Even after the pandemic, holidaymakers had opted to visit smaller islands which saw a huge increase in tourism in the typically less-popular locations across Greece.
He said: ?In the normality of the first two months we had a big increase in drive-through tourism. In the north of Greece, we only have one island - Corfu, and Halkidiki, part of the mainland, as the main destinations - and these are not the traditional destinations. These areas showed a disproportionate increase compared to the rest of the country.
?After the pandemic what we saw was the preference of the average traveller to go to smaller destinations, not necessarily go to the big destinations like Crete and Rhodes. All the smaller islands where people felt safer than in the bigger destinations had a huge increase in inflow, as well as the main destinations. The Peloponnese showed a very good year given the current situation and circumstance.?
For more on Greece's offerings, see http://www.visitgreece.gr/
