U.S. Bookings to Greece Raise Concern

Greek tourism destinations may see a drop of up to 50 percent in bookings from the U.S., the president of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Tourism, Yiorgos Trivizas, said recently.

Mr. Trivizas informed Tourism Minister Kostas Markopoulos that the U.S. media has set aside publicity on Greece due to pending advertising debts of the Greek National Tourism Organization that add up to some three million euros.

Reports say that the debts, which date back to 2007, have resulted to the inclusion of the GNTO on the U.S. market “black list” of companies that are considered “bad payers.”

However, Mr. Trivizas said that Americans are interested in visiting Greece, as 260 U.S.-based tour operators attended the GNTO’s seminar at this year’s Los Angeles Times’ Travel Show (held in February) despite the lack of advertising of the country in the U.S. media.

On his side, the tourism minister recently told Greek media that all debts will be attended to and that this year’s tourism promotion campaign for abroad is soon to be launched.