HDFS' Investor Relations Director Theodore Gitzos and Folli Follie Vice President, George Koutsolioutsos have released more details on Hellenic Duty Free Shops' prospects and performance at the company's annual conference call.

Between the comments of both officers, analysts were told that while HDFS has been able to increase its airports' shop space in 2008, it acknowledges 'rumours' that tourist traffic to Greece could be down by as much as 15% down this year.

However, HDFS told the analysts that it is not unduly concerned and it will have to wait and see what will really happen. But it is hopeful that many of these tourists will have booked their prepaid holiday packages already, with most staying for a week on average. But having said this, HDFS said that it does not consider these passengers to be its core mainstay customers anyway, so it believes that any sales downturn may not be as bad as some commentators might expect.

In fact, HDFS believes that it may even be able to deliver a flat sales performance this year which would it says would be good, considering that most analysts agree that international airport traffic will be down by at least 6% to 8% at Greek airports this year.