Fifth International Conference on Tourism & Leisure Studies

Abstract

According to the World Tourism and Travel Council (2019), the tourism sector of Greece represents 20.6% of its GDP. The same source states that this sector grew at a rate of 6.9%, a number that is over three and a half times the pace of the country’s national economy which grew by 2.0%. These numbers highlight the importance of the tourism industry to sustaining Greece’s national economy. The value is evident when compared to nearby countries like Italy and Turkey where tourism has lower contribution to GDP of 13.2% and 12.1%, respectively. Commercial air travel is a significant contributor to the Greece tourism industry and two-thirds of the spending in this sector is from international travellers. In 2018, over 200,000 domestic and international flights operated out El. Venizelos International airport in Athens (HCCA, 2018). The explanatory research examines the role of air transportation in the Greek tourism industry to define opportunities to augment commercial air transportation. Today 20% of the Greece GDP is derived from the tourism sector which is a large percentage for a country emerging from a persistent decade long recession. The contribution of commercial air travel to tourism will be parsed out to develop a forecast for air transportation demand and resulting contribution to the Greek economy for ten years using IATA forecast numbers. Additionally, an increase or reduction in the demand for commercial air travel could affect the tourism industry and scenario-based forecasts will be constructed from available data on emerging air travel consumer behaviour.