Greece is expecting more tourists this year, 32 million to be exact, and this is actually proving to be worrying for environmentalists in the Southern European country. That’s a large number considering that Greece only has a population of 10.77 million and an area comparable to the U.S. state of Louisiana. Greek tourism authorities have pointed to a variety of source markets as growth drivers, but have cited growth in the number of Chinese tourists as particularly encouraging. Greece’s tourism ministry is expecting an increase of 50 percent in the number of Chinese arrivals for 2018 over 2017.
Greek officials are expecting 32 million tourists to visit a country of just 10.77 million in 2018, with an increase of 50 percent in the number of Chinese tourists
Optimistic statements like these, while certainly encouraging from an economic perspective, add to growing worries of sustainability. On the other hand, due to conflicting statements from Greek authorities and the lack of reported tourism data, these high-profile statements on the growth rate of Chinese tourism have little meaning.
Quite frankly, it isn’t clear exactly how many Chinese tourists have been traveling to Greece in the last few years. Official data is seemingly not available beyond the first half of 2016, when the number of Chinese tourists actually declined 27.6 percent compared to the same period in 2015. Moreover, some quoted statements from tourism officials on the number of Chinese arrivals occasionally contradict each other and the official data available.
There doesn’t appear to be any official data that corroborates statements from Greek tourism officials
For example, Greece’s Minister of Tourism, Elena Kountoura, was quoted in May 2017 as saying that Greece received between 15,000 and 20,000 Chinese tourists in 2015. She was also quoted as saying that this figure had reached 150,000 by the point she was quoted in 2017. Official data reported data, however, shows that the number of tourist arrivals to Greece in 2015 was 55,097. While not an enormous number, it’s quite a bit higher than the 15,000 to 20,000 cited by Kountoura.
Furthermore, without official data for 2016 or 2017, it’s impossible to verify if, in fact, the number of Chinese tourists has ever reached 150,000. Although at least one Greek outlet is reporting that Greek diplomatic officials in China are expecting 150,000 Chinese tourists by 2018, implying that this benchmark was not reached last year, despite Kountoura’s comments. This figure was echoed by the Chinese, state-run Global Times. Of course, things sounded quite similar last year when Chinese tourists in Greece were expected to “exceed 170,000, increasing by 10-15 percent compared to [2016],” according to the Greek-Chinese Economic Council.
In short, there’s seemingly no way of verifying the official narrative of growth of Chinese tourism to Greece. Although given the historically low numbers of arrivals from China to Greece, it’s certainly not unreasonable to expect a high rate of growth in arrivals being driven by a relatively small number of arrivals.
While the rapidly increasing number of tourists coming to Greece will likely strain Greece’s environment and infrastructure, how much the growing number of Chinese tourists will contribute to this is unknown
As for worries that Chinese tourism growth will prove to be particularly straining on Greek infrastructure, its tourism industry, or the country’s environment, it’s impossible to tell. If the number of Chinese arrivals reaches the 1.5 million mark in the medium term, as some officials are hoping it will, this could be a major stressor for potential overtourism issues. Still, it would be less a Chinese tourist issue, and more an issue of small country having too many tourists in general.
Nonetheless, in this case, Greece is providing yet another example of how important it is to take the time to verify the claims made by stakeholders in regards to rapid growth in Chinese tourism. Even accurate, official data can be misleading, and some official actors present data that is massaged or manipulated to present the status of Chinese tourism in the best light. In all likelihood, Greece is experiencing high growth in the number of Chinese tourists, but what that exactly means isn’t clear.
By Mason Hinsdale