Calamos Supports Greece
GreekReporter.comGreek NewsEconomyGreece's Hopeful Cry: "The Tourists Are Coming!"

Greece's Hopeful Cry: "The Tourists Are Coming!"

touristsHoping that there won’t be a repeat of last year’s incessant protests, strikes and riots against austerity measures which led to images around the world of ports, airports and public transportation being shut down, Greece is projecting a big return in the number of tourists for 2013.
Travel industry leaders said that Greeceā€™s continuing allure – beaches, sun, beauty – is expected to overcome uneasiness about more social unrest against austerity measures being imposed by the government on the order of international lenders putting up $325 billion in two bailouts to prop up the economy.
Ironically, much of the business is expected to come from Europe and not Greeks themselves, who donā€™t have money to vacation even in their homeland and are cutting back on holidays. But even as there was optimism for a comeback, museums and archaeological sites across Greece were shut for a 24-hour strike on March 8 in a protest against cutbacks in the Culture Ministry.
Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is hoping to quell social unrest that is still simmering with many Greeks resentful over more pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions coming. There’s also uneasiness in his shaky coalition government which is engaged in talks with international lenders who want immediate layoffs and firing of scores of thousands of needless workers who had been hired for generations in return for votes.
Still, Doerte Nordbeck from market research group GfK said in a presentation at the ITB travel fair in Berlin this week that bookings to Greece from Britain, Germany and the Netherlands for this summer were up 10 percent. Tourism income for Greece, its biggest revenue raiser, fell by 4.6 percent to 9.89 billion euros ($12.84 billion) from January-November in 2012 according to the countryā€™s central bank.
The decline was led by a big drop of nearly 20 percent of Germans who were blamed by Greeks for backing the pay cuts, tax hikes and slashed pensions that have pushed a fifth of them into poverty.
With German Chancellor Angela Merkel showing up at the Berlin fair to urge Germans to return to Greece, there are signs they are going to do so. Alltours, Germanyā€™s No. 4 tour operator, said bookings for holidays in Greece were up 30 percent on the year, boding well for the country where tourism accounts for around one fifth of output and one in five jobs.
ā€œThe tourism industry in Greece has overcome the crisis of the last two years and is now back on top form,ā€ Willi Verhuven, Chief Executive of Alltours told Reuters news agency. He said the company was in particular seeing a surge in bookings from repeat customers who had ditched Greece in favor of other resorts.
Europeā€™s largest tour operator TUI Travel is also seeing a comeback for Greece, with bookings at the groupā€™s German unit up 4 percent. Bookings from the UK are performing strongly, a spokesman said. Merkel told the visitors to the Berlin fair that, ā€œI also wish that European countries which are famous for tourism get good custom – I name Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy – all countries in which growth is really necessary at the moment and where we have to make an effort to finally get people back into work.ā€ she said.

See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!



Related Posts