Thassos fears for tourism future

On the Aegean island of Thassos is prefered place for hotels vacation and travel in Greece, but the crisis is something that can ruin the whole business and infrastructure. It has many faces and each of them makes people bristle. Thassos tourists come, but not enough, and certainly not enough of tourists who spend a lot to reduce Greek fears caused by another wave of austerity measures called for due to the ongoing economic crisis in Greece hotels. The beaches during the day seem full of tourists, but the owners of local companies indicate that hundreds of sunbeds under umbrellas remain largely unoccupied island, which is 20 km from the Greek port of Kavala. Evening tourists leave their children to play with toys in the shops on the main pedestrian street of the main town of Thassos, but rarely buy anything.

It is strange that the business is not going especially after the streets are filled with tourists and ferries bring buses filled with visitors every day. Most guests, however, come from the Balkans – Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia – places where traveling abroad is relatively new, and wallets are thin. None of these countries can not be compared with the biggest spending money on Western Europeans – Germans and Britons in particular, the lack of which is obvious this summer. Most of all, perhaps the Greek tour operators lack local tourists who usually resorts overflow from Friday to Sunday every weekend in May and mass rest longer in the August heat. There is fear of the future and people are not tuned to rest, says the mayor of Thassos Kostas Hadziemanuil. The dentist, who has been busy with politics, making this assessment a week after eurozone leaders agreed to start negotiations on the third five-year rescue program for Greece. He expressed hope that the agreement, although it includes tax increases for the islands can put a new beginning for his country. We’ll see whether the agreement with creditors would change attitudes and increase visits in August, indicating independent politician.

The mayor, however, is the exception to this island of 380 square kilometers. Despondency is typical mood. Moreover, there is discontent among those who supported the prime minister (final) Left Alexis Tsipras referendum on 5 July when Greek voters rejected austerity measures, which are then Stallone personally rewrote his government and adopted last week. According to local absentee, but extremely important Western tourists avoid the island because of information about queues before ATMs and speculation that Greece could remain without fuel. However, another thing to keep the Germans away: many Greeks almost contemptuous smile when mentioning Germany. They accuse the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s austerity imposed. They insist that it is nothing personal and German tourists are welcome. And although there is little information about anti-German misunderstanding of the island, they still happen according to German online forums for Greek tourism.