Thessaloniki a top pick for visitors (data)

For a sixth year in a row, the Association of Thessaloniki Hoteliers collaborated with CBR Consulting to present the profile of the traveler that picks the city as their holiday destination. The results revealed that the average visitor to Thessaloniki would like to return, while their expectations are generally exceeded compared to what they believed to find before coming. They also responded that they were satisfied with their stay at the city’s hotels. The study was conducted on a sample of 1,200 people via questionnaires for the periods between October 2016 and January 2017 based on data collected by 41 hotels of all categories. The results of the survey showed that 96% wanted to come back to Thessaloniki, while the spending in the city by tourists went up 4.1%. 97% of the visitors (leisure, business or conference) said they would recommend the city to others. The survey did point out that there was room for improvement in areas such as, cleanliness, noise pollution, safety issues, urban transport, sidewalks and plazas. The capacity of the hotels in Thessaloniki remained at a high level, comparable to that in Cologne and Dusseldorf in Germany. The data also showed that among the top ten countries of incoming tourists to Thessaloniki were Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Montenegro, with the countries making up 23% of tourists that stayed at hotels in the city. The hoteliers of the city reiterated their requests for a cut in hyper-taxation, more competitive VAT, as well as scrapping the stay levy on visitors.