Despite the crisis in tourism and travel, Greece is currently drawing a special category of traveler: owners of mega-yachts, that is, yachts over 50 meters in length (164 ft).

According to Bloomberg, there were 145 mega-yachts in Greece’s seas in mid-August, up from 132 in August 2019 and 135 in July 2020 – these numbers are the highest the country has seen in the last three years.

And these are boats used by their owners, not rented out to others.

Among them, the 95-meter (312 ft) “O’Pari” superyacht and the 110-meter (361 ft) “Radiant” were spotted in our country.

Greece is the 4th country most visited by mega-yachts this summer, according to the numbers provided by Bloomberg.

It appears that the very rich owners of mega-yachts are shunning the Western Mediterranean because of the mass coronavirus outbreaks in France, Italy and Spain.

What’s more, Spain has “lost” 26 mega-yachts since last month; this number represents the biggest decrease in mega-yacht count, as stated by Bloomberg.

Greece is not the only country to have profited from the situation: Croatia and Turkey have too.

This article was first published on ekathimerini.com