The new year is starting with the best prospects for arrivals from Ireland to Greece, after last year’s strong increase (+33%), marked by air arrivals from Dublin (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 messages from the International Tourism Exhibition Holiday World Show Dublin 2024 (26-28/01/2024) were more than encouraging.
GNTO participated in the most important tourist event of the year for Ireland with a bigger stand compared to 2023 and targeted promotion of Greece and co-exhibitors with the Region of Central Macedonia, the Halkidiki Tourism Promotion Organization, the Thessaloniki Tourism Organisation and the Rhodes Hotel Association. The opening 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 the photo posts in the media and on social media. The Irish minister visited the Greek stand and received an invitation to visit Greece. The Greek stand was also visited by the Ambassador of Greece to Ireland, Magdalene Nicolaou, the Minister of Transport of Ireland, Jack Chambers, and the Ambassador of Cyprus to Ireland, Louis Telemahou.
The Greek stand saw a lot of traffic from tourism professionals, journalists and influencers, as well as from the Irish public. On the first day until 12:30, the exhibition was accessible exclusively by tourism professionals for the purpose of holding business meetings, while afterwards there was a large participation of the public looking for information on Greek destinations such as Athens, the Cyclades, Crete, Rhodes , Kos, Corfu, Zakynthos and the Sporades (as Mamma-mia islands). Most of the audience were repeat travelers, but also a large part of them were planning their first trip to Greece and looking for inspiration and directions.
The Director of the GNTO-United Kingdom & Ireland, Eleni Skarveli, had business meetings with important bodies of the Irish tourism market, indicatively Aer Lingus, Travelzoo, Click & Go, the President of the Association of Irish Travel Agents, who showed a strong interest in the aid of the cooperation with the EOT, but also new interested parties, such as the publisher of the specialized Irish magazine Irish Golfer and the specialist for luxury tourism T/O Oroko Travel to open alternative forms of tourism in Greece, in the Irish market which is distinguished for tourists of high travel expenditure.
During the exhibition:
It was agreed to organize a familiarization trip (fam/press trip) to Heraklion in May 2024, in the context of the launch of the new route of the airline company Aer Lingus from Dublin to Heraklion.
An additional press trip was planned on behalf of the Irish newspaper The Sun and a family trip for Travel Counselors in Thessaloniki and Halkidiki with the aim of enriching their proposals for Northern Greece.
New flight routes
Enriched with new destinations will be the 2024 flying project from Ireland to Greece as:
Aer Lingus introduces new routes to Heraklion from 6/5 to 2/9 and continues to fly directly from Dublin to Athens, Kos, Santorini, Corfu
Ryanair adds Zakynthos to its itineraries (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, Kos, Rhodes, Santorini and Thessaloniki, while its flights to Corfu from Shannon airport are maintained for the third year.
The Irish market
Based on data from the Irish National Statistics Authority (CSO), Greece saw a 33% increase in arrivals from Dublin Airport for the first 9 months of 2023 compared to the corresponding period in 2022.
In the period February-September 2022-2023, the weighted average increase in arrivals from Dublin Airport to Greece exceeded 33%, with May having the largest increase of the season.
Spain, Portugal, France and Italy are the most important competitive destinations in the Irish market despite their decline in 2023, with Greece being an exception and having recorded a 33% increase, while it is estimated by market experts that it will to further strengthen during 2024. Recent Airbnb research for 2024 confirms Greece’s popularity with Irish travelers. The aim of the EOT is the continuous enrichment of the Irish market with more Greek destinations and tourist products, as well as the direct air connection between the two countries throughout the year.
The GNTO- UK & Ireland EOT Office organized in 2023: 1) a group press trip to Kos by journalists representing the four national newspapers (The Independent, Irish Daily Star, The Irish Sun, Irish Daily Mail, a total of 611,000 readers), 2) a group fam trip with 8 Irish influencers in Thessaloniki/Halkidiki, 3) press mission to Rhodes after the fires, 4) press trip to Heraklion so that Aer Lingus considers including the Heraklion flight in its schedule 5) press mission to Crete to promote wedding tourism, 6) planned and coordinated an event at Corfu Airport with the travelers of Ryanair’s inaugural flight – for the season – on 3/6/2023 from Shannon Airport and 7) successfully completed a joint advertising campaign with the Irish T/O Click & Go to boost bookings to Greece.
The Holiday World Show Dublin is organized in partnership with the Irish Travel Agents Association (ITAA) and has established itself as the most important tourism exhibition for the Irish market. During its three-day run, the exhibition recorded an attendance of more than 32,000 visitors, including Irish media and tourism professionals. At the exhibition there was a strong presence of destinations from all over the world, such as Spain, Cyprus, Croatia, Malta but also Japan, South Africa, Cuba, Thailand, Kenya etc., however, among the 450 exhibitors, it was the Greek stand that won the visitors’ impressions, both because of its central position in the exhibition centre for the first time in the GNTO’s many years of participation, and because of its aesthetic and enhanced presence
