With August about to hand over the baton of Greek hospitality to September, everyone wants to see this year’s tourist season extended into autumn. In this, the Greek tourist sector has found an ally in a new trend whereby Europeans and travelers from other continents are choosing to spend their holidays in Greece outside high season.
The impact of climate change, the high price of airline tickets and tourist services, and phenomena associated with overtourism began to affect travel habits last year, with the months before and after full summer attracting tourists in unprecedented numbers. Now, more and more travelers seem to be opting to visit the country in April-June and again in September-November.
The major tour operators are taking this change in preferences into account and adjusting the packages they offer to meet the new demand.
What the flight data show
The new trend has also been documented by the Airdata Tracker of the Institute of SETE-INSETE, which analyzed the data relating to inbound international flights.
Based on data from OAG Aviation, the world’s leading provider of digital information on flights, airports and airlines, autumn travelers account for 75% of all airline bookings made this season! Already, the seats available for September and October this year have risen by 8.5% and 5.8% respectively, year on year.
In particular, September’s share of the annual scheduled tourist seats on inbound international flights now accounts for 16% of the whole! Which is marginally higher than the summer month of June, whose share stood at 15.9% this year.
Only July (with 18.8%) and August (with 18.9%) surpass September in terms of scheduled tourist seats! On the basis of the SETE-INSETE data, it looks like October will also perform strongly this year, with a 10.6% share that exceeds the average for April and May (April accounts for 7.4% and May for 12.1%).
What the bookings show
The change in travel habits and the tendency for tourists to opt to take their holidays in the ‘shoulder months’ before and after the period of highest demand are confirmed by the bookings in popular Greek tourist destinations for September through November.
In fact, in many Greek destinations, September and October will look a lot like August, while November is also starting to gain a momentum of its own. The flip side of this phenomenon is that quite a few destinations experienced a slowdown during the months of July and August, with occupancy in several areas falling below 100%.
Weather conditions have also contributed to rising autumn demand, with popular destinations like Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Corfu and Santorini, which enjoy a lot of autumn and winter sun, extending their seasons through to the end of November.
In general, the tourist season has been vigorous this year, with traffic slightly up on last year, though this was not reflected in hotel bookings, industry insiders note. They also point to a lull in the July-August period in terms of bookings, and to lively interest in the September-November period.
“September is starting to look like August,” they say, noting that for many destinations, there are more bookings for September than there were for August!
They also expect October to perform well. A similar picture is observed in properties rented through Airbnb-style platforms, with bookings recording an increase of 18% over the September-October period.
