Greece is in need of cheaper regional airports in order to maximise its potential within the growing low-cost airline industry according to EasyJet founder, Stelios Haji-Ioannou. During a conference in Thessaloniki, Stelios stated: “Greece needs to attract low-cost companies to help boost tourism and to do this it needs to lower airport costs”.
Stelios went on to explain that many tourists are taking holidays in alternative neighbouring destinations to Greece because of the high airport taxed, which in many cases can be higher than the cost of the ticket itself: “Spain, Italy and France are full of low-cost airports attracting airlines and their customers. In Greece this hasn’t happened because the airports are relatively expensive.”
If Greece were to lower travelling costs then it would almost certainly benefit from the popular Citybreaks market and even encourage people to buy second homes away from their home-cities according to the easyJet founder, “There are cities in Europe with unpronounceable names that have daily flights from northern Europe, cities that many people didn’t know existed, but are thriving with tourists because they attracted these companies.”
Stelios later revealed that an expansion of EasyCruise operations is planned, with additional destinations to include those in the northern Aegean Sea and Istanbul.
In an effort to add diversity from the typical sun, sea and sand tourism, Greece has granted new licences for the construction of luxury hotels and golf courses. Tourism is big business in Greece with approximately 1 in 5 of all jobs within the industry. Financially, tourism accounts for around 18% of Greece’s gross domestic product (GDP). Greece expects more than 15 million tourists to visit in 2007 which will make it the third consecutive year of growth since the 2004 Athens Olympics.
