9.8% year-on-year, and 200% as compared to
twenty years ago! So, according to a survey con-
ducted at the Chania airport from May to
November 2014, on a sample of 4,000 tourists
from 25 countries, the key factors that made the
visitors choose Western Crete for their vacations
were the climate and Cretan cuisine.
Tourist satisfaction rates stood at 92% in regard
to the behaviour of the locals and 91% in regard
to tourist accommodation. Tourists spend more at
restaurants and cafés and less at nightclubs. Top
local product buys include wine, natural orange
juice and olive oil.
Greek tourism is obviously not afraid of compar-
isons in terms of quality, without this meaning that
there is no room for improvement.
For example, eight hotels —three in Santorini,
two in Rhodes and one each in Chalkidiki, Evia
and Zakynthos— have been included in the
TripAdvisor list of the world’s top hotels for 2015.
At the same time, Greek hotels boast a total of 25
entries in various lists of top-ranking hotels in
Europe. The hotels of Santorini boast the most
impressive presence in the European top-25 lists,
with 12 entries. Recently, the world’s number 1
travel website released its 8 lists of the top hotels
in the world, in each region and in each country.
More specifically, in the list of the top 25 hotels for
families in the world, Sani Beach Hotel
(Chalkidiki) was ranked 5th, Holiday Village
Rhodes (Rhodes) 15th and Club Med (Evia) 21st.
In the corresponding list for Europe, Sani Beach
Hotel came 2nd, Holiday Village Rhodes 4th and
Club Med 8th, while Ikos Oceania (Chalkidiki)
was ranked 13th. In the list of the top 25 hotels for
romance in the world, Anastasis Apartments
(Santorini) was ranked 7th, and Lindos Blu
(Rhodes) was ranked 25th. In the corresponding
list for Europe, Anastasis Apartments came 2nd
and Lindos Blu came 7th, while Astra Suites
(Santorini) was ranked 11th, Pezoules (Santorini)
12th, Saint Vlassis Hotel (Naxos) 13th, Rocabella
Mykonos Art Hotel and Spa (Myconos) 16th and
Zorzis Hotel (Santorini) was ranked 20th.
Furthermore, Astra Suites was ranked 21st in the
list of the top 25 small hotels in the world. In the
Trade with Greece
114
”
“
It is certain that Greek
tourism has achieved a
lot and still has many
improvements to make,
in order to remain
competitive within an
extremely challenging
environment, to the
benefit of many millions
of friends of Greece
from all over the globe,
and to the Greek
economy itself.
