Destinations

A special promotional TV spot will be released for Northern Greece very soon, Deputy Culture and Tourism Minister Yiorgos Nikitiadis said last month.

The revenue of Athens-Attica hotels (3-, 4-, and 5-star) fell by 3.6 percent from last year’s January-June period as a result of a 1.2 percent drop in the average hotel occupancy rate and 2.4 percent drop in the average price per room, according to the latest study of GBR Consulting, released by the Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association.

Greece once again ranked second place on the Blue Flag quality award list among 41 countries, according to the Hellenic Society for the Protection of Nature. Spain is in first place.

Financial crisis, International Monetary Fund, tourism, holidays, Milos… Greece’s economic crisis made headlines throughout the international media and German magazine Focus decided to “be creative” and circulated front cover issues that depicted the famous Venus de Milo statue first making an indecent gesture and then begging for financial aid. However, on Milos, Venus (Aphrodite) is not gesturing or begging. She remains a symbol of beauty and invites the world to travel with her to an impressive landscape.

German bookings to Greece are in a standstill, tourism professionals in Germany told the foreign press last month.

Each country’s views on the crisis in Greece directly affects the tourist flow to the country, according to recent figures of research company GfK’s Tourism Panel.

Greek hotels produced a two percent increase in the average price per room in 2009, according to the Hotel Price Index (HPI) survey released recently by U.K. website Hotels.com.

On 7 April the first flight on which Greek citizens were able travel to the United States without a visa left Athens following Greece’s accession to the U.S. Visa Waiver program in March. Greece was formally added to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program on 5 April.

Greece, as a Schengen country, cannot unilaterally abolish visa procedures as this requires a joint decision from all of the Schengen countries, Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas said in a recent interview to Turkish daily newspaper Sabah.

As a destination Athens is deteriorating and losing any grounds it had intended to gain and this ultimately cannot be considered a result of the global economic crisis, according to Athens-Attica Hoteliers Association President Yiannis Retsos.