Tourism bookings from the United States for Greek destinations are showing an increase of up to 40 percent this year compared with 2012, according to the head of the Hellenic-American Tourism Chamber, Giorgos Trivizas.

Speaking at an event on Thursday in Athens concerning the US travel market, Trivizas attributed the rise to the drop in hotel rates, the increase in flights from the US and the end to the bad publicity that Greece had received in negative news stories.

Arrivals from the US declined for a fifth year to 373,800 in 2012, according to Bank of Greece data.