Bookings for 2015 holidays decline by 50 percent
The negative impact on tourism from the political turmoil in Greece has become blatantly obvious over the last couple of weeks, when, according to data from the association of Hellenic Tourism Enterprises (SETE), new bookings for next year dropped 50 percent compared to the rate before mid-December.
Tourism association representatives say that the first couple of months of 2015 will be a particularly significant period regarding the course of the next tourism season as that is the time when the bulk of hotel bookings from abroad would normally be made.
Foreigners’ interest in yacht bookings has frozen too, while there is also pressure on the conference sector: There have been instances of foreign organizers who have relocated conferences planned for Greece this spring to other countries.
Worse still, business groups who had decided to begin the implementation of investments in tourism are now holding back, postponing their moves for the future.
