Mrs. Eleni Skarveli (Head of EOT UK & Ireland).
The new year starts with the best prospects for arrivals from Ireland to Greece, after the strong increase (+33%) in air arrivals from Dublin last year (9 months 2023 vs 2022). This upward trend is expected to increase this year as well, as new air routes to Heraklion, Rhodes and Zakynthos are planned , while the messages from the market at the International Tourism Exhibition Holiday World Show Dublin 2024 (26 – 28/01/2024) were more than encouraging.
GNTO participated in the most important tourism event of the year for Ireland, with a larger pavilion than in 2023, targeted promotion of Greece and co-exhibitors the Region of Central Macedonia, the Halkidiki Tourism Promotion Organisation, the Thessaloniki Tourism Organisation and the Rhodes Hotel Association.
The inauguration of the exhibition by the Irish Minister took place in front of the Greek pavilion, resulting in a multiplication of the country’s visibility in photographic posts in the media and social media. The Irish Minister visited the Greek pavilion and received an invitation to visit Greece.
The Greek pavilion was also honoured with their presence: the Ambassador of Greece to Ireland, Mr. Magdalene Nicolaou, the Irish Minister for Transport, Mr. Jack Chambers and the Ambassador of Cyprus to Ireland Mr. Louis Telemachus.
The Greek stand was well visited by tourism professionals, journalists and influencers, as well as by the Irish public. It is noted that on the first day until 12:30, the exhibition was accessible exclusively to tourism professionals for the purpose of holding business meetings, while afterwards there was a large participation of the public seeking information about Greek destinations such as Athens, the Cyclades, Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Corfu, Zakynthos and the Sporades (as Mamma mia islands). The majority of the audience were repeat travellers but a large part of them were planning their first trip to Greece and were looking for inspiration and directions.
The Head of the EEA Office of the Hellenic National Tourism Organisation (HNTO) Kingdom & Ireland and Eleni Scarveli had business contacts with key players in the Irish tourism market, including Aer Lingus, Travelzoo, Click & Go, the President of the Irish Travel Agents Association, who have shown a strong interest in strengthening cooperation with the GNTO and new stakeholders such as the publisher of the specialist Irish magazine Irish golfer and the luxury tourism specialist T/O Oroko Travel to open up alternative forms of tourism in Greece to the Irish market, which is distinguished for its high spending tourists.
During the exhibition:
– It was agreed to organize a fam/press trip to Heraklion in May 2024, in the context of the launch of the new Aer Lingus airline route from Dublin to Heraklion.
– An additional press trip was planned on behalf of the Irish newspaper The Sun and a fam trip of travel counsellors of Travel counsellors in Thessaloniki and Halkidiki in order to enrich their recommendations for Northern Greece.
New air routes
The 2024 flight service from Ireland to Greece will be enriched with new destinations as:
– Aer Lingus, introduces new routes to Heraklion from 6/5 to 2/9 and continues to fly direct from Dublin to Athens, Kos, Santorini, Corfu,
– η Ryanair, adds to its routes the Zakynthos (flights from 5/4 to 25/10), and for the first time Rhodes from Cork airport. It continues to fly from Dublin to Athens, Chania, Corfu, Corfu, Kos, Rhodes, Santorini and Thessaloniki, while its flights to Athens, Chania, Corfu, Kos, Rhodes, Santorini and Thessaloniki are maintained for the third year. to Corfu from Shannon Airport.
The Irish market
According to data from the Irish National Statistics Authority (CSO), Greece saw a 33% increase in arrivals from Dublin Airport for the nine months to 2023 compared to the same period in 2022.
In the period February-September 2022-2023, the average growth in arrivals from Dublin Airport to Greece exceeded 33%, with May having the highest increase of the season, as shown in the following table (data from https://data.cso.ie/):
| Comparison of passenger traffic from Dublin to Greece 2022-2023, by month | |
| February 2022-2023 | +16.7% |
| March 2022-2023 | +51.9% |
| April 2022-2023 | +39.4% |
| May 2022-2023 | +44.7% |
| June 2022-2023 | +28.4% |
| July 2022-2023 | +28.3% |
| August 2022-2023 | +24.4% |
| September 2022-2023 | +34.9% |
In terms of passengers from all Irish airports, the picture is shown in the following table:
| ARRIVALS TO THOUSANDS OF VISITORS FROM DUBLIN AIRPORTS | ||
| DESTINATION | SECOND SEMESTER 2022 | FIRST NINE MONTHS 2023 |
| SPAIN | 2.282.800 | 2.172.000 |
| FRANCE | 991.500 | 985.700 |
| ITALY | 840.900 | 807.100 |
| PORTUGAL | 695.200 | 647.000 |
| TURKEY | 172.300 | 161.000 |
| GREECE | 136.800 | 158.800 |
| CROATIA | 129.800 | 120.300 |
Spain, Portugal, France and Italy are the most important competitive destinations in the Irish market despite a decline in 2023, with Greece being the exception and having seen a 33% increase, and is expected by market experts to strengthen further in 2024. A recent Airbnb survey for 2024 confirms the popularity of Greece for Irish travellers. EOT’s aim is to continuously enrich the Irish market with more Greek destinations and tourism products, as well as direct air links between the two countries throughout the year.
