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Alkis Konstantinidis/European Pressphoto Agency
Visitors with a view of Acropolis Hill in Athens.
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By LIZ ALDERMAN
The sun was blazing above the Acropolis, draping the ivory pillars of
the Parthenon in a golden sheen. The red-tiled roof of the ancient Agora
museum glimmered in the heat, and a breeze ruffled the boughs of olive
trees. On the rough cobbles of Plaka, a cafe-lined tourist area, crowds
of camera-toting visitors paused to soak it all in. Kostas, a waiter at the Diodos taverna, which offers a splendid view of
the scene, smiled. A year ago, amid a political and economic crisis that
fueled protests in central Athens and pushed Greece toward the brink of
exiting the euro zone, the surrounding streets were hauntingly empty.
But on a recent Saturday afternoon, Kostas, who only gave his first
name, was scrambling to find an empty outdoor table to accommodate
patrons.
“Greece is back!” he exclaimed.
If last summer was a dark spot for tourism in this crisis-hit country,
travelers are returning in greater numbers this year, lured by discounts
of up to 20 percent on hotels in major cities and on Greece’s stunning
islands, as well as assurances — at least for now — that Greece won’t be
ditching the euro and returning to the drachma after all.
“The Greek government is stable, and we are no longer under speculation
that Greece will leave the euro,” said Xenophon Petropoulos, a spokesman
for the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises. “The value-to-price
ratio is excellent at the moment, and that’s helping to bring tourism
back.”
With reports of anti-austerity protests last year and early this year
fresh in people’s minds, however, the first question being asked by
travelers is whether it is safe to visit Greece. The short answer is
yes.
“You may have activity in Syntagma Square,” Mr. Petropoulos said. “But
500 meters away, people are drinking beer in Plaka.”
Indeed, the number of demonstrations has dropped and, as Mr. Petropoulos
noted, they are largely confined to Syntagma Square. Recently, some
Americans asked this reporter about the far-right Golden Dawn group,
which has used violence against ethnic immigrants. But locals are
pushing back with protests and occasionally direct confrontation,
resulting in a mild decrease in the group’s vigilantism. There have been
no reports of violence toward tourists.
These days, the main nuisance for travelers is likely to be
transportation strikes to protest austerity measures. They have sharply
diminished but still pop up sporadically on the Athens metro, among air
traffic controllers and on ferry boats to the islands. Visitors are
advised to check the Living in Greece Web site, livingingreece.gr/strikes,
for updates and to consult the Web sites of their national Athens-based
embassies for strike, safety and other information before traveling.
None of those concerns stopped Jim Wiseley, a teacher at Gobles High
School in Gobles, Mich., from bringing his class of around 30 students
on a Classical tour of Athens. One sunny afternoon in April, he sat with
his mother and some students at the foot of the sacred rock on which
the Acropolis is perched, enjoying a meal he had picked up at a taverna:
feta and olives, tomatoes, grilled meats and freshly made tzatziki.
Mr. Wiseley said the American tour company he used was worried about
people canceling trips to Greece this year. As a precaution, the group’s
hotel reservation was moved from the center of Athens to a location
about half an hour away. “But that wasn’t really necessary,” he said.
“There have been no safety issues here.”
Geoff Baylee, 17, a student from Gobles, gazed at the Parthenon with
awe. “It’s breathtakingly surreal, especially when you know that the
ancient Greeks built it in 15 years,” he said. Mr. Wiseley’s mother,
Joan, 73, said she had snapped up bargains on gold jewelry and
accessories. With numerous stores shuttered in central Athens amid the
crisis, some shops were giving school groups special discounts of up to
60 percent.
Greece sorely needs the business. The economy has shrunk by more than 20
percent in the last five years, and unemployment recently topped 27
percent. The government is still laboring to repay international loans,
and many average Greeks continue to feel the effects of an austerity
program that has cut incomes and fanned social hardship.
Despite the travails, Greeks remain welcoming. “We are eager to see
visitors enjoy the splendors of Greece,” Mr. Petropoulous said. The
country hopes to draw in more than 17 million tourists this year, after
international visits slumped by 5.5 percent last year to 15.5 million,
Alexandros Vassilikos, the head of the Athens-Attica Hotels Association,
said. Hotel prices in Athens and its suburbs have dropped an average of 45
percent in the last three years, as have room rates on numerous islands,
he added. Hotels near Classical sites just a few hours’ drive from
Athens have also cut their prices, including Delphi and the
well-preserved ancient theater at Epidavros, where some of the first
Greek tragedies were performed.
But deals are now luring travelers from Northern Europe, the Middle East
and especially China, where the Greek government has engaged in a
special outreach to lure newly affluent tourists. Already, reservations
for hotels and cruises through July are up about 20 percent over last
year. Tourism from the United States is also rebounding. Through the
first few months of 2013, flights originating in the United States were
up double digits from a year ago, aided by a drop in ticket prices and a
strengthening dollar, Jeremy Boore, an analyst at Expedia.com, said. Much of the renewed interest was in Greece’s second-largest city, Salonika, called Thessaloniki by the Greeks.
Meanwhile, there has been strong growth in bookings for hotels in the
Cycladic islands, especially Santorini and Mykonos.
Last year, visitors, fearful of what would happen to reservation
deposits if Greece reverted to the drachma, canceled their bookings or
put them off. That was especially the case at upscale hotels on islands
like Mykonos. This year, Mykonos hotel bookings made online are up 20 to
30 percent, with offers like 10 percent discounts for early
reservations and 14-day stays for the price of 12, said George Zachos, a
manager at Kyklomar Tours in Mykonos. “We just hope that the politicians will let us alone this year to work without any bad surprises,” he said.
On a recent weekday, tourists jammed onto a Blue Star Ferries
boat, which left from the Port of Piraeus outside Athens and wound its
way toward Santorini. Despite three decks connected by escalator and
elevators, the boat was filled to capacity to accommodate travelers who
had been stranded in Athens the day before because of a ferry strike.
Although it is famed for its high lava cliffs and whitewashed houses,
even Santorini is working to burnish its image and recapture visitors.
The island’s tourism board has proclaimed this year the Year of Gastronomy
dedicated to “the fruits of the dry volcanic land.” Food festivals will
be held throughout the summer, linking tavernas and high-end
restaurants with wineries and romantic hotels.
At the Angel Cave Houses,
one of the many lodgings overlooking Santorini’s caldera, rooms were
almost completely booked from May to July, said Athanasia Chalari, a
manager. She was offering up to 20 percent discounts for nonrefundable
bookings, after offering 50 percent discounts last year.
“Little by little things are coming back,” she said.
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