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Tourists ‘will ignore Greek terror threat’
Holidaymakers are not defecting from Greece in spite of new terror threats and ongoing political unrest, said specialist tour operator Sunvil Holidays this week.
The operator admitted it was discounting holidays to try to bring in more late bookings, but he said business was not any worse than in previous years.
"In fact, our bookings for Greece are marginally ahead of last year," said managing director Noel Josephides. "We are discounting, but only much the same as in the past.
"We are no more sluggish on Greece than on Italy, Latin America and all other destinations."
Josephides admitted that holidaymakers who have yet to decide where to go this summer may be put off Greece by news reports of planned terrorist attacks and the threat of further strikes by workers disgruntled at the Greek government’s austerity measures, but he said his repeat clientele were unfazed.
"Terrorists have been setting off bombs in Athens for as long as I can remember, so what’s new about these latest threats?
"People who know Greece and love Greece are still going to go this year, they won’t be put off."
He said Sunvil’s clients had so far been largely unaffected by the strikes by transport workers.
"We charter our own ferries between some of the islands so we have actually been able to help other operators and their customers during the ferry strikes, and some of our passengers have had flight delays, but no more than three hours," he said.
Some larger tour operators to Greece have been heavily discounting, but Josephides said this was not upsetting the market. "The big operators had already switched a lot of capacity from Greece to Egypt and Turkey which are more fashionable this year," he said.
"There will be fewer people going to Greece over the summer, but that means the beaches and resorts will be quieter, prices are about 10 per cent lower because in Greece they have realised the good times are over, and, with the better exchange rate factored in, people will save about 20 per cent this year."
By Linsey McNeill
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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