Domestic Travelers Complain of Unfair Treatment

The average Greek will take two weeks’ holiday this summer, most during the month of August, at a total cost of about 1,300 euros, according to an annual tourism survey released last month.

The Kappa Research poll, which was presented at the opening of the Tourism Panorama 2005 exhibition in Piraeus, also found that foreign travel is becoming increasingly popular with Greeks, to the detriment of local tourism.

Just under 26 percent of respondents said they had made one international trip for pleasure in 2004, and 6.1 percent had traveled abroad twice. On the other hand, the percentage of respondents who had been on holiday in Greece once in 2004 was 57 percent, compared to 70 percent in the 2002 survey. While 49 percent said they would take the same length of holidays as last year, 33 percent said they planned a shorter or cheaper break to save money.

The survey also found that 44 percent of respondents feel Greeks are treated worse than foreign visitors by the local tourism industry.