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News Desk
A new survey published today by The London Daily News has shown that Londoners will not be holidaying in Greece this year because of the fear created by the riots in the Greek capital. In the survey which asked "Will you be holidaying in Greece this year?" 68% of those asked said no, with Londoners more than likely to opt for Turkey or Egypt, over Greece. Today it has also emerged that over 20,000 hotel bookings in Athens have been cancelled in Athens in the past two weeks, with the Tourism minister Angela Gerekou tendering her resignation over allegations of tax evasion from her crooner husband Tolis Voskopoulos.
Greek hotel operators are already anticipating "at least a 10% drop in reservations" and 15% drop in revenues this year in comparison to 2009.
Reports from some islands are showing that Mykonos and Santorini will not be affected by the exodus of British and German tourists, but bookings to Aegean and Peloponnesian islands have fallen despite heavy discounts of up to 30% by STA travel the student holiday operator.
"Because of the economic crisis, Greece has been the subject of months of negative advertising in the international media which has really discouraged visitors," said George Tsakiris, president of the chamber. "And then on top of that we had the recent events in Athens."
One seasoned traveller and Greek Londoner Antonis Karafellas said:
"I am not deterred by the riots or the economic crisis in Greece, the troubles are in the centre of Athens not in Skiathos or Paros, I and my whole family are still going to Greece".
Greece normally expects to receive around $1 billion a month in revenues from the tourism industry, but this will be significantly affected if the bookings downturn materialises.
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