By Tony Winterburn • Published: 30 Apr 2020 • 9:24
TOURISM is a major income earner for Greece. It drew 34 million visitors last year, bringing in €18 billion ($19.52 billion) in revenue, about 10-12 per cent of economic output, and provided employment for about one in five of the workforce.
“Tourism is facing its biggest crisis of our generation,” said the president of Corfu’s hotel association Charalambos Voulgaris, owner of two resorts on the Greek island on the Ionian Sea.
Long stretches of beach, some dotted with rows of umbrellas, lie empty on Corfu and hoteliers like Voulgaris wonder whether they will open their doors this summer.
A lockdown from March 23 to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, which was effective in avoiding high rates of fatalities seen in other European countries, is expected to take a toll. Greece is now trying to save what is left of the season.
“We are going to have very low occupancy rates. We don’t know if our hotels will open, when they will open, so we are right now on the brink of very hard times,” Voulgaris said.
Harry Theocharis, Greece’s tourism minister, says the plan is to welcome back tourists in July. The government will begin to gradually ease the lockdown on May 4 and hotels operating year-round will be able to open on June 1.
“I guess this is the million-dollar question. We are aiming to open up sometime in July, this season is not going to be like the other years, I would be a fool to believe that this could ever be the case. However, there is a lot that we can do to reopen the tourist economy, the flows,” he said.
Greece has recorded 2,566 cases of Covid-19 infections and 138 fatalities.
Share this story
Subscribe to our Euro Weekly News alerts to get the latest stories into your inbox!
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don't already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Share your story with us by emailing newsdesk@euroweeklynews.com, by calling +34 951 38 61 61 or by messaging our Facebook page www.facebook.com/EuroWeeklyNews
By signing up, you will create a Euro Weekly News account if you don’t already have one. Review our Privacy Policy for more information about our privacy practices.
Download our media pack in either English or Spanish.