Greek tourism takes a hit - and why that may not be such a bad thing

From Daily demonstrations cutting into Greece's tourism draw

Athens - Greece prides itself on its history as the cradle of democracy and has long used that fact as a major tourism draw.

However, an influx of activist democracy that some say has gone too far - ongoing strikes paired with almost daily street demonstrations since last December - has been putting a crimp in that tourism industry.

Businesses, luxury hotels and automated teller machines are boarded up, access to Athens' ancient city centre is cut off to traffic and riot police stand guard at every street corner.

'You cannot really plan on doing anything because suddenly you have a group of people protesting in front of you,' said Vicky Valanos, a tourist
from Holland.

Combined with a global recession, the protests, which have gone on for months, are causing serious worries in the tourism industry.

'Normally, people who visit another foreign country check the weather report,' said Valanos. 'But here you need to check if anyone is striking or protesting beforehand - and if they are, that means you are not able to get around because transport stops and businesses shut down.'

Tourism season isn't in full swing, but the industry is already feeling negative effects from the protests. Visitors to Athens in recent months risk being turned away from the country's most popular tourist sites - the Acropolis - as culture ministry employees open and close it at the drop of a hat to protest against job cuts and pay delays.

Greece's Finance Minister, Yiannis Papathanasiou has said it is unclear how badly the financial crisis would affect the country's vital tourism industry as the credit crunch hits potential vacationers.

But Giorgos Drakopoulos, director if the Association of Greek Tourism Enterprises (SETE), said the violence has affected the country's image in a negative way.

'Fortunately, we believe that this is only short term and we will be back to business as usual - Egypt and Indonesia managed to bounce back after various bombing attacks which occurred in their countries.'

Businesses insist tourism has already suffered from the daily outbreaks of extremist violence in the capital since riots rocked the country in December. Those broke out after the fatal shooting of a teenager by police ignited anger amid unemployed young Greeks.


Tourism is destructive, in anybody's language

Article Abstract:

Mass tourism is extremely negative. It encourages pretence and fake traditionalism, and does not create anything positive. It cheapens history and works of art and architecture, and largely ignores local culture and traditions. It contributes little to local economies, and encourages selfishness and greed. However, there are some cases in which satisfying the needs of tourists can bring benefits for local people.
author: Morris, Jan
Publisher: Financial Times Ltd.
Publication Name: The Independent
Subject: Retail industry
ISSN: 0951-9467
Year: 1998


From Swedish tourism bad for environment :

Swedish wanderlust comes at a high environmental price, according to a new study. Stefan Gössling, a lecturer at Lund University, has calculated that ten percent of Sweden's combined carbon dioxide emissions can be traced to the tourism industry.

Gössling carried out his studies in collaboration with Michael Hall, a researcher from New Zealand. Their findings show that Sweden emits double the average for the global tourism industry, which stands at 5 percent, according to United Nations body UNWTO.

The airline sector is the highest contributor, producing a third of the tourism industry's carbon dioxide emissions, Svenska Dagbladet reports.

Stefan Gössling believes that the tourism industry in Sweden lacks a crisis mentality on the climate change issue.


From Video Shows Destructive Side of Jamaica's Tourism Industry :
By Dawn Marie Roper

KINGSTON, Jamaica, October 28, 2008 (ENS) - The Jamaica Environmental Trust on Thursday night launched "Jamaica for Sale," a 92 minute video documentary highlighting disturbing issues behind the island's normally rosy sun, sea and sand tourism image.

"We want to raise hard questions about the tourism industry, especially in light of the recent rise in a certain kind of tourism. There are costs. We are asking questions about these costs," said Diana McCaulay, chief executive officer of Jamaica Environmental Trust.

The video features the faces and voices of Jamaicans and other Caribbean personalities talking about life in the wake of a burst of construction of mega-hotels across Jamaica's coastline. The film shows how gains from tourism development come at a high price to the people.

"Government is selling of beaches and sometimes entire islands. This cuts off local citizens from having a say in what happens around them," said Mimi Sheller, a sociologist from Swarthmore College in the United States.

The film features small hoteliers and other citizens talking about the wide scale removal of the mangroves, wetlands and the breeding grounds of indigenous birds and turtles.

Early in the film, construction workers detail the ill-treatment and low wages they receive from the Spanish hotel developers.


From Mass tourism: Is it exploitation? :

Pope John Paul II has branded mass tourism the new form of exploitation.

The most widely travelled pontiff in history dismissed tourist villages as places where people seek superficial exoticism and lack "any real contact with the culture of the place".

The globetrotting Pope, who next month departs for his summer holidays in the mountains near France, said a certain type of tourism can transform "culture, religious ceremonies and ethnic festivities into consumer goods".

Does tourism create exploitation? Or does eco-tourism bring prosperity to much needed areas? What effect has tourism had on the culture, economy and environment in your area?

This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.

Your reaction

The Pope is bang on. As a resident of the Caribbean, I daily see the detrimental effects of tourism on our societies. In the name of tourism, Caribbean people are becoming second class citizens in their own countries. Tourism is very much the new plantation for the Caribbean. Yet I'll admit that as small economies with not many development options, tourism is an important industry both from the standpoints of employment and export earnings. I would like to see a more wholesome tourism in the Caribbean, a tourism which does not exploit local people through paying low wages, promoting prostitution, etc, but which is based on fairness and respect for our people.
Reudon Eversley, Bridgetown, Barbados

The Pope is right to speak out. The tourist industry is guilty of trying to crystallise the disparate and complicated cultures of the world into bite-sized, palatable and 'quaint' chunks for the public to devour hungrily. It's creating a dull, flat homogeny where the world is typified by patronising symbols such as whitewashed buildings in Greece and sangria in Spain. There is more to the world than this!
Richard West, Birmingham, UK

The Pope is absolutely right. Commercialised tourism didn't exist for thousands of years and yet the 'third world' didn't starve to death then. Maybe western countries insisting that these countries should 'modernise' and thus destroy perfectly sustainable forms of existence caused the current problems. More western exploitation and interference through tourism is not going to help!
David Slater, York, England

What about all the communities that rely on tourism? How will they cope if people don't travel?
Jay, South Wales

I fully agree with the Pope. I was born in a little town on the south coast where we used to go sea bathing and roam around freely. Today, the beaches are dotted with exclusive "foreigners only" resorts, we are afraid to let our young sons and daughters go to these beaches. A large percentage of local boys and sex workers are said to be infected with AIDS. A predominantly Buddhist country now sees half- clad westerners roaming around in holy cities and posing next to sacred statues! The people in the industry turn a blind eye as they want the dollars.
Rohan, Colombo, Sri Lanka

[ ... ]

I'm grateful the Pope has said the whole idea of tourism has been hijacked by selfish capitalists. The people today who for example come to safari tours of Africa are not interested in learning the cultures at all but to splash money in posh hotels and beaches, exploit the local population. It is common practice to find hotels and campsites priced in dollars benefiting the rich Westerners and depriving the local population. Who then benefit are the capitalists who also happen to come from the Western world.
Byaruhanga Aloysius, Kampala, Uganda

People go to various tourist spots for many reasons: to know more about the places they visit, to have a break from the monotonous life and to have some relaxation, to learn something new, etc. It is good to visit tourist spots. Unfortunately, some tourists fail to respect the culture of places which they visit. For example, some Westerners who visit the beaches in Goa think that they are in a "nude" world and go nakedly on the beaches, ask young girls/boys to give massage to them and take delight in breaking all norms. Some who visit religious places do not want to learn how they should behave.
Albert P'Rayan, Kigali, Rwanda (Indian)

Tourism has destroyed a way of here in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. We were once home to the largest Amish/Mennonite population in the USA, but because of mass tourism we have lost over 40% of the original Amish/Mennonite population and over 65% of what was once their land is now gone to development. It deeply sickens me how much the Pennsylvania Dutch (German) has been exploited to the extent that prediction models have suggested that by the year 2020 not only will Amish/Mennonite farms as we know them all but disappear from Lancaster county - but so will their language and their way of life.
Volker Kohlhaus, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA

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Sometimes, law and order take a back seat to tourism, putting trusting tourists at risk without their knowledge or consent. For instance:


From Tourism officials downplay N.O. murder rate

People responsible for marketing New Orleans to the outside world hope this recent crime wave is a statistical blip that will not hurt the long-term image of New Orleans.

"Certainly from the visitors angle, it doesn't help," said Beverly Gianna, vice president for the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau Inc. "We do get calls asking about crime stats but it certainly is not what it was 10 years ago."

Gianna said a decade ago, when New Orleans had more than a killing a day, her staff routinely fielded calls about the murder rate.

"We had to get past that issue before talking about the positives of the city, but it is not as much of an issue anymore," she said.

Gianna said she knows of no events or conventions that have bypassed New Orleans because of crime. She said tourism hasn't been noticeably affected either.


From Study: Murder rate is even higher

The new study, by demographer Mark VanLandingham, aims to fix the main flaw in previous per capita murder estimates for 2006: It takes into account the large change in New Orleans' population during the year, with far fewer people in the city at the beginning of 2006 than at the end. That change raises the murder rate substantially.

For instance, using the highest static population estimate VanLandingham found in his research, 201,000, would produce a murder rate of about 80 per 100,000 people, still significantly lower than the new study's conclusion. Using the figure New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley has offered -- 275,000, based on an estimate rather than research -- the murder rate would fall to just 58 per 100,000 people.

VanLandingham, a professor in the international health and development department of Tulane's School of Public Health, sought to bring hard fact to a debate between the Police Department and critics who say the it has downplayed the crime problem.

"It's part of this big policy debate: How bad is the murder rate?" VanLandingham said. "It was a question that could be answered. And I wanted to do it right, come up with a correct estimate."

The study also shows a steadily increasing murder rate since 2004. The murder rate for 2004 was 57 per every 100,000 people. In 2005, the year Katrina hit, the rate was 65 per every 100,000 people, according to VanLandingham's study.

According to his study, the 2006 murder rate was 68 percent higher than in 2004.


From Wife accuses Portuguese cops of death cover up

Marie, 57, of Holborn Terrace, Ryton, Gateshead, had to take the agonising decision to turn off her husband’s life support machine after he was confirmed to be brain dead.

She is furious with the police conclusions and is demanding they re-open the case. She says a Portuguese neurosurgeon who treated David in Lisbon told her his black eye was caused by a punch.

And the extent of his injuries, according to the experts, indicate the blow was so fierce it would have literally knocked him off his feet.

Now the former bank worker is taking on the Portuguese authorities, accusing the police of an inept investigation into the 64-year-old’s death.

[ ... ]

“I have written to the Portuguese authorities in the strongest terms saying they have not treated my husband’s death as a serious crime. I cannot accept their findings. I’m determined to carry on for his sake and to help me come to terms in my mind that I have done everything for him.”

Grieving Marie believes not enough is being done by the Portuguese police to protect holidaymakers. She said: “A receptionist in Lisbon told me the police are encouraged to treat incidents with tourists in a low profile manner.”