ATHENS – With flights already filling and tour packages brimming over, Greece is readying for a banner year with reports that besides the big markets such as the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy that Austrians are lining up to come.

Even with Russian airlines still banned under European Union sanctions for the invasion of Ukraine, Greece is hoping to break the previous record year of 2019 before the Coronavirus brought lockdowns and limited travel.

The signs appeared with big bookings made during the International Tourism Exhibition of Vienna Ferien 2023 that saw a 20 percent hike compared to the same period in 2022, said SchengenVisaInfo.com

https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/news/austrian-tourists-eager-to-visit-greece-this-year/

The favored spots for the Austrians are islands, including Crete, Rhodes, Kos, Corfu, Karpathos and Zakynthos and a spring excursion led by  TO Senioren Reisen in April and May is expected to bring 6,000 pensioners to Halkidiki.

Other destinations high on the Austrians list were Skyros, Lemnos, Sifnos as well as Thessaly, with a weekly flight from Austria’s capital to Volos also getting a lot of bookings and attention.

Germans are also keen on coming too with the President of the German Travel Association (DRV), Norbert Fiebig, telling the site that people have wanderlust again after being locked down for so long.

“Germany wants to travel! The early birds are back, and the travel agencies and tour operators have entered into this year at full speed,” Fiebig noted and Germans will be followed by Belgians too with the Greek National Tourism Organisation reporting a surge in reservations and interest.