This story illustrates the downturn in the economic fortunes of Greece since the country had its heyday, as a funds recipient country in the EU (before enlargement took UK money to other destinations). There has in fact been a small rise in the absolute numbers of UK visitors to Greece, but this is offset by the fact that as the cost of living has reached parity with, and in some cases surpassed, that of the UK, the type of visitors to Greece seems to have changed.
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| Quads On Santorini |
Gone are many of the singleton 'Grecophiles', walking the hills of Attica looking for Myths and Legends, and in their place are the booze cruisers and 18-30 type crowds.
Many independent holiday makers are now looking at unspoilt regions of Bulgaria, Turkey (which always seems cheap), and Romania, who offer similar classical style holidays, but at about half the price of Greece and still offer more unspoilt areas, and this is the siren call for the classicist, or the lazy beach addict like me.
Speaking solely for myself, I used to regularly go to the Greek Isles, but stopped after my last two trips, as it now appears that the chance of a peaceful idyll on a Greek island have been seriously lessened by some desperate and unplanned commercialisation. Large tracts of the beach areas available, are either heavily populated or blocked off, with every inch seemingly claimed and owned by someone (whether legally or not), and you are almost charged just for standing still or looking at the sea, or rather the 'banana boats' roaring up and down.
The sound of 'Pop Music' blaring out of every bar and roadside taverna, rather than the dulcet tones of the Bouzouki, is what flattens the ears when you walk the Greek resort streets these days. With the final straw being the chain rattling Quad bikes, revved up to the max throttle by sixteen year old British drunks, and roaring up and down every street and road from 10:00 am until 10:00 pm.
In an attempt to keep costs down, standards of accommodation maintenance are under pressure, and meals are as likely to be frozen 'precooked', as 'home made', making the whole experience feel like a pub lunch rather than an exotic adventure in a foreign cuisine. There is also a plethora of Albanian and Romanian 'Gypsy's, who use their kids to beg or pickpockets, with the PC disease seeming to stop the Greeks doing anything about this plague, and it makes walking the streets in the evenings a real hassle.
The desperation of the Greek hotelier and shop keepers to milk every source of revenue, and take advantage of any income stream, has often led to them destroying the very reason for many visitors going there in the first place. The idyllic and sybaritic lifestyle offered in the adverts (and to some extent the reality), has in many instances been turned into a tawdry and shabby trip to 'Blackpool' with sunshine.
I thought it was utter hell compared when I first started going in the mid 1970's (holiday work in a bar), and then as a holidays maker in the 1980's ..... and thus ending a twenty five year love affair with the Aegean and Ionian Seas, that had brought me great pleasure over that period, but ended, just as most love affairs do, with some tears.
The last few years I have gone to the Italian Lakes instead, which although every bit as expensive or more so, as Greece, still has some areas where a tourist can enjoy "La Dolce Vita".... sad, but true to say that Greece has probably been lost to me as a regular destination now, and it has only the economics and greed to blame for this.
The Greeks used the 'golden years' of EU funds to build more and more hotels, and destroyed much woodland and habitat to do so. Now much of the beauty has almost gone, and nothing but ever more empty hotel rooms, or half built developments may be all the legacy left.
Spain has gone through a similar experience, and now is one continuous concrete block from Malaga to Gibraltar, and the rest of the Mediterranean is seemingly heading in the same direction. But in Spain there is some recognition that cheap tourism is no longer sustainable, and in Majorca for example, they have already started to blow up some of the 1960's hotels and cut the visitor numbers, which I think is a good idea to make these destinations pleasant once more ....
Speaking solely for myself, I used to regularly go to the Greek Isles, but stopped after my last two trips, as it now appears that the chance of a peaceful idyll on a Greek island have been seriously lessened by some desperate and unplanned commercialisation. Large tracts of the beach areas available, are either heavily populated or blocked off, with every inch seemingly claimed and owned by someone (whether legally or not), and you are almost charged just for standing still or looking at the sea, or rather the 'banana boats' roaring up and down.
The sound of 'Pop Music' blaring out of every bar and roadside taverna, rather than the dulcet tones of the Bouzouki, is what flattens the ears when you walk the Greek resort streets these days. With the final straw being the chain rattling Quad bikes, revved up to the max throttle by sixteen year old British drunks, and roaring up and down every street and road from 10:00 am until 10:00 pm.
In an attempt to keep costs down, standards of accommodation maintenance are under pressure, and meals are as likely to be frozen 'precooked', as 'home made', making the whole experience feel like a pub lunch rather than an exotic adventure in a foreign cuisine. There is also a plethora of Albanian and Romanian 'Gypsy's, who use their kids to beg or pickpockets, with the PC disease seeming to stop the Greeks doing anything about this plague, and it makes walking the streets in the evenings a real hassle.
The desperation of the Greek hotelier and shop keepers to milk every source of revenue, and take advantage of any income stream, has often led to them destroying the very reason for many visitors going there in the first place. The idyllic and sybaritic lifestyle offered in the adverts (and to some extent the reality), has in many instances been turned into a tawdry and shabby trip to 'Blackpool' with sunshine.
I thought it was utter hell compared when I first started going in the mid 1970's (holiday work in a bar), and then as a holidays maker in the 1980's ..... and thus ending a twenty five year love affair with the Aegean and Ionian Seas, that had brought me great pleasure over that period, but ended, just as most love affairs do, with some tears.
The last few years I have gone to the Italian Lakes instead, which although every bit as expensive or more so, as Greece, still has some areas where a tourist can enjoy "La Dolce Vita".... sad, but true to say that Greece has probably been lost to me as a regular destination now, and it has only the economics and greed to blame for this.
The Greeks used the 'golden years' of EU funds to build more and more hotels, and destroyed much woodland and habitat to do so. Now much of the beauty has almost gone, and nothing but ever more empty hotel rooms, or half built developments may be all the legacy left.
Spain has gone through a similar experience, and now is one continuous concrete block from Malaga to Gibraltar, and the rest of the Mediterranean is seemingly heading in the same direction. But in Spain there is some recognition that cheap tourism is no longer sustainable, and in Majorca for example, they have already started to blow up some of the 1960's hotels and cut the visitor numbers, which I think is a good idea to make these destinations pleasant once more ....
The future may well see a lot of the concrete 60's, 70's, 80's developments knocked down, as a greener version of the mass holidays emerges.
Never heard so much Rubbish. Simply not true. Standards of accommodation have improved hugely, food is great and it is still the safest place in Europe.As for the beaches , Greece has more blue flag beaches than all countries in Med put together as well as an abudance of coves and bays . Nobody is allowed to own any part of the coastline - so get your facts straight
ReplyDeleteWell this is a personal observation, and not a comment from someone who obviously enjoys Greece as it is now, and not as I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteWhen someplace gets spoilt from your point of view, then no doubt there will be others who think its now 'fantastic'. That's life and I learnt to live with sometime ago.
However I was a regular visitor to the Islands since the 1970's, and what I was looking for, and what you are looking for, obviously differ.
When I started going, the Islands were sleepy and calm, now most appear to be 24 hr party resorts, with a massive increase in traffic and 'off road vehicles'.
As for the comments about cost and quality - I concede that new builds are 'better', as they have to meet EU codes but the maintenance is often spotty, as owners need to recoup costs from a diminishing return per visitor.
The new EU arrivals or would be entrants, are obviously going to be better value on costs, they share a similar culture, climate, coastline (black sea) and some history (Roman Period). They are also building now, which means that they can avoid many of the pit falls that Spain and Greece didn't.
Finally, if you used the link I provided you will note that irts a BBC business story pointing out that Greece is
· "Not as cheap as it used to be"
· That 'tourists have looked for cheaper, but equally sunny holiday destinations' elsewhere.
· "Greece's economy after many years of strong and uninterrupted growth is today at a critical crossroads,"
· "its public debt is almost equal to its national output"
· and 'youth unemployment at about 19% and overall joblessness at 7.2%'
And yes, the beaches laregely aren't privately owned, but increasingly the approaches to beaches are via hotels etc (in common with some other EU countries), with those beaches cordoned into patches by various vendors of beach beds and foodstuffs.
I was also reliably informed by a Greek 'green', that ancient forest areas are regularly burnt (illegally) each summer, in the hope that more planning permission will be granted on formally protected areas.
As I say, these are personal observations and if you don't agree then you have many more blissful Greek holidays ahead of you. I on the other hand have no wish to have to listen to Quad bikes, while laying on a beach staring at the Aegean.
You pays your money and makes your choices.
I think the first commentor has either misread the article - a personal account of why someone is not going to Greece anymore, or works for the Greek Tourist Board.
ReplyDeleteI have also found that the Islands have become noisy and with more tourists than they are able to handle.
I went to Bulgaria and really enjoyed myself. I may try the Italian lakes as I had never thought of them before.
The Current Strikes, farmers blockades etc in Greeece, over the poor state of the economy and described in the "Mark Mardell Blog" on the BBC Website seem to hint that there has been a number of issues in Greeece.
ReplyDeleteWell the truth really came home to roost for the Greeks, since these comments and the original post they went bust!
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me that the original post was actually quite prophetic because Greek tourism has fluctuated over the last three years (which is not good news for an industry), but fair to say that due to the situation in northern Africa, Greece may get a boost this year.