During the last week of October, Amalia Delakis and her son Dimitris from Kriti Plus car rental, located near the old port of Chania in Crete, were finally taking a break after a busier season than expected. “The last year has been a very difficult time and most small businesses didn’t know if they would survive,†Amalia told DW. “Basically, this year everyone came at the same time: in July, August and September and until October. Most businesses did not have enough cars to handle the large influx of people all arriving at the same time.
The family suspect they were busier in part because of the reluctance of tourists to take public transport amid the pandemic and the fact that many other countries have remained closed to tourists such as Turkey, the United States. United and Thailand.
After much uncertainty over what the 2021 tourist season will bring, Greece has fared better than expected, especially in the fall. And this despite the fact that Greece was hit by forest fires in August near Athens and on the island of Evia, as well as in Rhodes, which may have discouraged some tourists from coming. Yet the country has always welcomed more than two million visitors to its shores in the months of July and August 2021 alone, more than any other European country. In September, 75% of tourists came the same month in 2019, Tourism Minister Vassilis Kikilias told SKAI radio at the end of October. The government has just achieved its goal of having more than 50% of tourists in 2019, according to statistics available at the time of writing.
Kikilias told the network: “Greek tourism is not going on autopilot, nor was it last year. A very big effort has been made amid the pandemic and this is clearly the result of the efforts of hoteliers, transport sector, people who work in tourism trades, airlines, tour operators, but also through the country’s advertising campaign, visitors, and the sustainable tourism product. “
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Industry bounces back
Greece was one of the first to open up to tourists and has not required visitors to self-quarantine upon arrival. It was a gesture of necessity: the tourism industry accounts for about a quarter of the country’s GDP. In 2020, the situation was dire for many people who depend on tourism income generated in the summer to get through the winter.
While the revenue generated by tourism in 2019 was 18.2 billion euros (21 billion US dollars), this figure collapsed to 4.6 billion euros in 2020. Islands like Crete and Rhodes in the southern Aegean Sea, which depends on mass tourism from abroad, has been hit hard.
New models emerge
The busy short season and the business boom that extended into October in Crete was unique. “This year has been super strong and it continues. The other day I was driving around town and saw four buses unloading in downtown TUI and big tour operators like that. This is new to us,†said Alexandra Monousakis. She and her husband Afshin Molavi run several businesses in and around Chania, including the Monousakis winery and the Salis restaurant at the port of Chania.
Molavi noted that customers at his restaurant this year seemed eager to spend more on higher quality meals and wines than in previous years. “People were ready to say, we’ve been sitting in our apartments for so long that we can go out and spend some more money,†says Molavi. Perhaps this is a pandemic holiday trend: Greek Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told ministers spending per trip in the first seven months of 2021 exceeded those seen in 2019 based on travel receipts .
Package vacation popularity
The Cretan tourism market, like that of Rhodes and Kos, and other islands in the southern Aegean Sea is dominated by package travel in which large tour operators like TUI and others bring in customers with packages. all inclusive vacation.
In Rhodes, 85% of tourists booked their trips with packages offered by tour operators. “The season was better than expected, especially after August, which was 80% of 2019,†Christos Michalakis, managing director of GEM travel, specializing in tours around the island, told DW Christos Michalakis.
October was a particularly successful month for the company, which had 10% more tourists than before the pandemic in 2019.
Back in Crete, Katja Haffenrichter-Kritsotakis, secretary of the board of directors of the Hoteliers Association of Rethymno, points out that a prerequisite for many people to travel this year with the ongoing pandemic was to know that the measures COVID would be respected. “The package gave them security, that everything was set – and that everyone would stick to the COVID prevention measures.” 70% of overnight stays in member hotels of the association come from organized trips.
A sustainable future?
The Greek government has announced plans to open the 2022 season in mid-March to encourage tourists to come to Greece as soon as possible – typically the season opens later, around Easter.
Alexandra Manousakis and Afshin Molavi are busy preparing for the coming season. They are grateful for the season’s success despite the pandemic, but are concerned about what a surge in tourist numbers could mean in 2022. The government is committed to Greece becoming a leader in sustainable tourism, but Now that the numbers are rising again, concerns are returning to overcrowding in Crete, as well as other islands that focus on package tourism, such as Santorini and Mykonos.
“If we have double the number of people who just want to come and wreck the beaches and get drunk, that would be awful. Nobody likes it. We hope for tourists who want to learn more about culture and experience nature,” he said. Manousakis told DW. “Crete is beautiful, and an island like this could continue to be an incredible destination if tourism is well developed.”
