Tourism needs better ports
Greek passenger ferries and dozens of popular Aegean island ports must urgently improve if the Mediterranean country is to continue cashing in on a bumper tourist market, industry officials said yesterday. Tourism accounts for about 18 percent of the country’s gross domestic product and roughly one in five jobs. But transport standards threaten to sour holidaymakers’ experience. Greece expects its third consecutive year of tourist growth since the 2004 Athens Olympics, partly thanks to more investment in the industry. But little has been channeled into improving ports and ferries, officials said. «There is a series of issues that must be tackled if we want to improve what we offer visitors, and these have to be addressed as soon as possible,» said Yiannis Evangelou, president of the Hellenic Association of Travel and Tourist Agencies (HATTA). More than 14 million tourists visited Greece last year, an increase of about 8 percent from 2005, and about 15 million are expected this year, industry and government officials have said. Greece has made a determined effort in recent years to shake off its mass tourism image and lure more high-end visitors. Gone are the days when island-hopping backpackers formed the staple diet of the industry, which now boasts golf courses, spas and five-star hotels. But the coastal shipping industry, which ferries millions of tourists to the sun-drenched isles each year, needs serious upgrading, Evangelou told a news conference. The late announcement of summer schedules, still to be issued in their entirety for this season, scarce routes for more remote islands, an aging fleet and below-par on-board services compromise the sector. »How can we book a trip to the island of Serifos, for example, if we do not know well in advance whether a ferry will sail there on that specific day?» Evangelou said. Evangelou said the state must dramatically increase spending to upgrade dozens of ports across the country to allow bigger ferries to dock there and boost visitor numbers. Michalis Sakellis, president of the union of coastal shipping enterprises, conceded there were problems but said action was under way to remedy them next year, if not this. «We are not perfect and there are problems,» he said. «For the 2008 schedule, we plan to publish travel schedules as early as this coming October to give sufficient time to plan in advance.»
