For the first time in history, Greek waters are leading in terms of the number of luxury private boats in them.
The gradual easing of quarantine in a number of tourist regions leads to increased interest in them from the owners of luxury ships. Earlier we already wrote about the surge of interest in yacht tourism in Croatia, Turkey and Dubai. Now there is a real "superyacht" boom off the coast of Greece, with its Acropolis, the whitewashed buildings of Mykonos and Santorini, and amazing views of the island of Corfu.
At least 194 superyachts have sailed off the Greek coast as of June 25, according to Bloomberg data, up 80 from last month. Vessels belonging to many iconic personalities were seen there. Such as basketball star Magic Johnson and Australian tycoon James Packer, as well as billionaires David Geffen, Abdullah al-Futtaim and Ernesto Bertarelli. Marked in these waters and Russian businessmen.
Greece has been constantly struggling with new outbreaks of coronavirus in recent times. 37% of the population has already been vaccinated in the country. And it reopened to foreign tourists on May 14, provided visitors have a vaccination certificate or proof of a negative Covid test result.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron recently criticized Greece and other tourism-dependent nations for allowing tourists who have been given Chinese and Russian vaccines that are considered less effective in the West.
However, the tourism sector in Greece accounts for one fifth of the entire economy of the country, employing almost 25% of the population. And the coronavirus pandemic has become a very serious and difficult test for this region. Needless to say, according to the World Bank, Greece ranked 18th in terms of the number of foreign tourists from 2015 to 2019, hosting an average of 30.3 million tourists.
