Greek tourism’s new worries
Extreme weather conditions and crisis management to determine the choice of many tourists
Although the damage to businesses and tourism workers in the areas hit by storm Daniel is huge, the impact on the country’s overall tourism performance this year is expected to be marginal. However, alternating extreme weather events such as the heatwaves of July and August and now flooding, as well as fatal incidents such as the trash crash in Tempe earlier this year, have begun to raise concerns in the Greek tourism industry about longer-term effects.
Polls on the behavior of European travelers show that extreme weather and natural disasters have started to be a criterion for choosing, or rather avoiding, holiday destinations.
Pleasant climate conditions are one of the two main criteria for Europeans when choosing a destination, according to a Mindhaus survey conducted on behalf of the European Travel Commission.
The fact that airline seats to Rhodes this year were reduced by 1.5% in July and another 1.5% in August, according to the Institute of the Greek Tourism Confederation (INSETE), in the wake of the devastating fires, as well as the fortnight-long freeze in bookings, show the extent of sensitivity to such phenomena.
The heatwaves that hit all Mediterranean destinations this summer appear to have shifted demand by around 1.5% from the European South to the North, at least for Northern and Central European travelers, a European Union online forum (Together for EU Tourism stakeholder meeting) heard on Tuesday.
Research by the World Travel & Tourism Council showed speedy and successful management of extreme events, such as floods, will decide whether or not there will be long-term effects, especially if a country can properly communicate it internationally.
“Natural disasters can often result in extensive damage to buildings and infrastructure, which lengthens recovery times. Therefore, the effects may last for a long time, depending on the extent of the damage caused by the disaster,” says the head of the Informal Group of Hoteliers of Mountainous and Semi-Mountainous Destinations and president of the Association of Hoteliers of Drama Angelos Kallias.
