Already faced with foreigners staying away, Greece’s sun-kissed islands are now experiencing the final insult: a collapse in domestic tourism.
And for those dependent on tourism for their livelihoods on Aegina, an island reached by hovercraft and best known for its pistachios – said to be Greece’s tastiest – the situation is even worse.
“First we lost the foreigners, now we are losing the Greeks. This is a disaster,” says Elias, 50, the manager of the Tropical Club beachside restaurant also renting out sun loungers and umbrellas to sunbathing Greek families.
“People don’t spend as much money as before. And we have to pay more taxes,” he told AFP.
Ten years ago, the island had more foreign visitors than Greeks paddling in its crystal-clear waters and eating its fresh fish, but then the construction of a new airport in Athens drove flights elsewhere, locals say.
“In the past decade, we’ve had more Greeks than foreigners, like 70-to-30 per cent. But in the past two years, with the crisis, Greeks don’t come either,” said Elias, cheery nevertheless behind his sunglasses and under his straw hat.
A drop in tourism, which accounts for 15 per cent of national economic output, is the last thing the country needs as it endures its fifth straight year of recession and tough austerity cuts in return for two international bailouts.
Spooked by the prospect of violence returning to the streets of Greece after elections this Sunday, the number of tourists arriving at Greek airports was five per cent lower in the five months to May.
The fear is that the all-important summer season will be a washout, with foreigners preferring to sunbathe and sightsee in a country not facing the prospect of being forced out of the eurozone.
Domestic tourism, which makes up 25 per cent of the all-important sector, has already suffered from the downturn.
“Domestic tourism is doing even worse than tourism by foreigners because of the collapse in Greek incomes,” said George Telonis, head of the Greek travel agents association HATTA.
(source: AFP)
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