There is currently no concrete reason why this should happen, other than collective psychosis, yet it is happening: tens of thousands of tourists who had planned to spend their holidays in Greece have canceled their reservations, already in the week preceding the referendum held yesterday and in response to the worrying developments (still unknown to tell the truth) of the country's financial situation in recent weeks.
This was reported today by the online edition of the Athenian newspaper To Vima according to which cancellations for some time have been proceeding at an average of around 50.000 a day. While Deputy Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura appealed to the media "not to harm the country's tourism", industry experts believe that the result of yesterday's referendum and the introduction of capital controls launched by the government since last Monday are having a devastating impact on the main Greek industry, although without indicating specific reasons for alarm.
Last year, the Greek tourism sector experienced a record season with 22 million visitors and 13.44 billion euros in receipts, with an increase of 23% in attendance and 10.6% in revenues compared to 2013 for a total of 17% of GDP. With the uncertainty created by the current political and financial situation, as stated by Andreas Andreadis, president of the Hellenic Tourism Confederation (Sete), it will be very difficult for the tourism sector to reach the initial forecasts of one million tourists this year in more and 14 billion in revenues.
Nearly 300.000 hotel reservations were canceled last week alone and industry experts speculate that unless the country's situation normalizes immediately, it will be impossible for hoteliers to recoup the losses already incurred. Hardest hit by the latest wave of cancellations were the Aegean islands: many foreign tourists deserted them preferring to travel to other destinations in Spain and Türkiye.
