By Fanis Zois

 

Chinese tourist market in Greece is making a dynamic restart through Air China, after the lifting of travel restrictions in China, having already included the direct Athens-Shanghai connection last December, after Beijing." It is another milestone for us in the Greek market, after 2017 when we started direct flights between Athens and Beijing", said Air China's general manager for Greece, Mr. Fan Heyun, presenting the new route.

 

  

The new connection has already started on December 22, 2022, following the lifting by China of the mandatory quarantine for travelers from abroad, after three years of isolation.

 

Mr. Fan noted that demand is still not that high, due to the measures put in place by European countries for travelers from China. "However, the lifting of the quarantine measure in China is very important for the planning of Chinese travelers, who want to move to Europe and we expect much more travel in the coming months."

 

Chinese ambassador, Mr. Xiao Juncheng, who also attended the event, said that "China rejects the restrictions set by European countries and they should be based on real scientific data. There is no need to worry for international travelers from China, the mutations are the ones already circulating in Europe. The number of cases in China is high, but more than 3.4 billion doses of vaccines have been administered, covering more than 90% of the population, and serious illnesses and deaths are very low".

 

 

Regarding Greece-China relations, ambassador, Xiao said that "in the post-pandemic period, there is a first-class opportunity to strengthen tourism ties between the two countries: Both, China and Greece, have competitive advantages in the tourism sector with very great potential for cooperation. Greece has a very high know-how and quality tourism product, while China has a strong dynamic in terms of outbound tourism, with about 7 million trips to Europe in the pre-pandemic period, in 2019. The number of Chinese travelers to Greece corresponding to 300,000. More than 80% of travelers prefer organized "packages" for trips to Greece, however individual travelers are also increasing significantly. Young Chinese mainly prefer the islands - the preference of young couples for Santorini is typical. Greece and its performance in tourism in 2022, returning to the numbers of 2019, is a model and it is no coincidence that last summer Air China reinstated the Athens-Beijing route and in December launched the Athens-Shanghai route".

 

 

According to AIA data, travelers from China to "Eleftherios Venizelos" in 2019 reached 217,600, having recorded an increase of 22% in terms of direct connections compared to 2018 and by 21% in connections with an intermediate station. From 2013 to 2019 there was a 166% increase in the Chinese market, compared to the 104% average international traffic at the largest Greek airport, while from 2018 the Chinese market entered the top 20, finally rising to 15th place in 2019.

 

"Hopefully things will be good with regards to the pandemic for the whole year, increasing connectivity to China is a project that was started before the coronavirus, but it was stopped due to the pandemic and is coming back now. It is characteristic that since 2017 when the direct connections also started, the Chinese market doubled in 2019 at the Athens airport", said Mrs. Ioanna Papadopoulou, Director of Communication and Marketing of the Athens International Airport.

 

 

Chinese market, along with the American and Russian markets, are the top three spenders in airport retail. The fact that the majority of Chinese tourists (81%) travel to our country for leisure and only 16% travel for business reasons and 3% to visit friends and relatives also contributes to this. Chinese travelers even book their tickets and packages three months in advance of the travel date and stay in our country for an average of 11 days.