Greece civil unrest causes holiday slump

Bookings for hotels and holidays suffer

May 2010

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The recent riots and strikes that have occurred in Greece have left the Greek tourism industry very concerned about the effects on its tourist trade. The images of burning buildings and demonstrators throwing missiles at the police have been broadcast around the world and have resulted in the cancellation of up to 20,000 hotel bookings in the capital and nearby holiday resorts. It is estimated that one in five people in Greece are employed in the tourism industry and as the number of holiday bookings drop further still, more jobs are at risk.

Thomas Cook, which normally sells around 600,000 Greek holidays a year, reported a 24 per cent decline in the number of bookings from Britain to Greece over the past four weeks alone and bookings from Germany to Greece have fallen even further, down by 30 per cent. Although booking cancelations where not increasing, holiday makers are booking to travel to other destinations including Turkey, Egypt and the Balearic Islands. Thomas Cook have been badly hit by the fall out of the volcanic ash disaster and have reported a £70 million loss due to stranded customers and flight cancelations.

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