Tour operators are worried: the Greek Islands are beginning to lose that
golden reputation as the place in the Med to chill out and explore the
ancient historical sites. Recently, there have been some high profile
sex attacks, reports of dirty beaches, racism and incidents in some of
the noisy rave type resorts. According to Noel Josephides, managing director
of Sunvil Holidays, a Greek holiday specialist, “the number of British
holidaymakers to Greece levelled off this summer, and the country cannot
afford to be complacent. This was the first summer in 30 years that we
did not have a single incident of hotel overbooking. Nothing is ever
full now.”
Other tour operators have criticised Greece as a holiday destination.
Abhi Dighé, a director of Kosmar Holidays, the biggest operator to Greece
said: “In Portugal and Spain, the beaches are raked overnight.
People there still leave cans and rubbish — but in the morning they
come back to a clean beach. This has to happen in Greece as well. People
don’t want to clear away rubbish and take it to an overflowing bin
before they put their towels down. It is not luxury that people are looking
for, just quality and safety.”
And yet, the Greek government recently announced that it would be building
more large resorts.
So what is there to do in Greece? Interestingly, most tourists
view Greece as a comparatively inexpensive sun-and-sea destination, rather
than for its classical sites. The number of visitors to the major
ancient sites and museums declined during the 1990s. On the other
hand, there were more visitors to archaeological sites on islands that
have become tourist
destinations. Alternative tourism, including ecological
and special interest holidays
is gaining ground, but remains a small segment of the overall market.
Who will I be sharing my plot of beach with? The latest figures
that the Beetle could get hold of show that 12.8 million visitors went
to Greece in 1999. The Germans and the British account for about an astonishing
50% of all arrivals. They are followed by other western Europeans, mainly
French, Scandinavians and Italians. There are comparatively few high-spending
US and Japanese visitors. The number of tourists from the former communist
countries of eastern and central Europe is increasing at a steady pace.
There was an estimated 15% increase in visitor numbers in 2000, mainly
of people going to Crete,
and Rhodes.
So where should I go? More than 50% of visitors to Greece stay
on half-a-dozen resort islands – Crete, Rhodes, Cos, Corfu, Mykonos and
Santorini. – with airports equipped to handle international charter flights.
In northern Greece, the main destination is the Halkidiki peninsula.
And how long is long enough? Most tourists come on package holidays,
flying directly to a resort destination aboard an international charter
flight. While the number of arrivals increased by over 30% during the
1990s, the average stay declined in length from over two weeks to about
10 days.
Is it posh? Um, well, no. If you go by the figures, Greece has
an estimated 1.5 million beds in hotels and rooms for rent. Of these,
only 30,000 are in luxury and first-class hotels – that’s
2%, and about a third of these are business hotels in Athens!
Greek officials predict that tourist arrivals will peak in 2004, when
the http://www.athens2004.comOlympic Games will be staged in Athens.
Statistics provided by the Greek
Tourism Services
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