"Golden Age" for Athens city break tourism

Trips to major European cities have grown twice as fast compared to the overall international holidays market in the last 10 years, according to a survey conducted by IPK International on behalf of the Berlin ITB report.

No other form of travel has grown so quickly in recent years worldwide.

The numbers are highly indicative:

In 2014, around 70 million Europeans traveled to cities outside their country, spending a total of 400 million nights.

Compared to 2007, the cumulative increase reached 60%, corresponding to an average annual increase of 7% .

This means that city travel in Europe increased two times more than the overall market for holidays abroad.

Of the total town trips, 75% served a purely travelogue purpose, approximately 24% combine the journey with a visit to friends and relatives and only 1% was a professional journey.

Germany records a steady annual increase in urban tourism, immediately after the World Cup in 2006, apparently due to attractive television reports, which highlighted the destination.

France, Britain, Italy and Spain are also high on the scale of popularity, with Austria occupying sixth place, doubling its numbers from 2007 until now.

Paris and London are the most popular cities for individual Europeans since they attract many football fans for Champions League games. Berlin follows in third place, leaving behind many top European destinations, thanks to its steady above-average growth rate.

Barcelona, Prague, Amsterdam, Vienna, Rome, Munich occupy the next slots and only New York is the only non European city ranking high on the European tourism list.

City tours are spread throughout the year and this is a significant differentiation compared to 2007, when 2/3 of all city trips took place during the summer months.

Now only 52% of the trips are made in the summer with the remaining 48% taken during other seasons.

In terms of months, August is leading, only a little ahead of May, April and December.

City visits, of course, last shorter than summer trips, however, more money is spent during them.

Since 2007, the average duration of a journey to a foreign city is constantly decreasing.

The percentage of short trips that last 1.3 nights represents over 40% of the toatl sum and is growing steadily.

This rate of increase is almost double than the one for longer city trips.

Staying in rented houses has emerged as a strong trend in recent years, however two out of three travelers continue to book hotels.

Websites offering local houses for rent, such as Airbnb or Wimdu, have experienced a real boom and are the latest leaders in growth.

In hotels, stronger growth is recorded in high-end classes.

Finally, city trips are still mostly an activity for wealthy Europeans.

According to the World Travel Monitor, 80% of city tourists belong to higher income social strata and are highlly educated.

In 2014, the average expenditure per person on a journey in a foreign city amounted to more than 700 euros, equivalent to about 130 euros per night.

These figures include all costs such as transport, etc.

The specific survey's results cover Europeans traveling to European cities outside their home country and spending at least one night there between 2007-2014.

The entire findings and forecasts for 2016 will be presented at the ITB in March.

Yet, the abovementioned data account for the Athens tourist explosion in the last 3 years, which is long in coming, as other European cities have been moving steadily upward since 2007.

Obviously, the Greek crisis with the ensuing demonstrations and negative publicity, is responsible for this delay of Athenian tourism, which may, however, catch up during the next few years, since growth rates are higher than average in major European cities.

As long as international climate remains normal and stakeholders manage to improve even marginally the level of city services, Athens will seemingly continue to experience a "golden age" in tourism...