Research shows over two thirds of Brits not affected at all by £3m advertising campaign  

Now that Mother’s Day is (almost) out of the way, it’s time to turn our attention to Easter – always an eggscellent time to travel!

In the aftermath of the Costa Concordia cruise ship tragedy on January 13, the announcements by government ministers from Turkey and Greece that they are introducing measures to give cruising in the Mediterranean a boost couldn’t have come at a better time.

The word “unique” is overused. Like the words “undiscovered,” and “paradise.” But Mount Athos in the Halkidiki region of Greece may be just that.
Why?

Given the current coverage of Greece in the media, a success in Greece would hardly be reported. Yet Greece has been one of the big tourist success stories of the year.

There is an old adage that says there is no such thing as bad publicity. Complete horsefeathers. Bad publicity can damage as long as the subject is in the media spotlight. Greece is a good example.

Mirjam Stibbe started Barcelona-Enabled in 2010. In Spain like many countries, she says, there are initiatives that promote accessible travel. What she noticed was there was no bridge between travellers and the services Barcelona offered. Suppliers were the same, the needs of disabled visitors was overlooked.

What would your reaction be if you had planned a holiday somewhere but there was a chance of a strike disrupting your plans? Would you take no notice and still go? Would you immediately plan to holiday elsewhere? Would you still plan to go but check your travel insurance first and then decide?
Greece has decided that tourism is so valuable to its economy that it has announced that if disruption is caused by strikes or even a return of the volcanic ash problem, they will cover whatever extra costs a tourist might have to face. The tourism minister, Pavlos Ggeroulanos, said that they (the Greek Government presumably) would guarantee to pay for any extra accommodation costs in the event of a strike. At the same time he announced a new tourism campaign to persuade us to take our holidays this year.

Whether you’re stay-cationing or vacationing, CD Traveller tells you what’s hot in the travel world

Greece has been at the centre of the recent concern about reducing government spending and/or increasing taxes. It has led to demonstrations in Athens and now it seems it is having a wider impact. It may be discouraging us from taking our holidays there. According to Der Spiegel, the German news organisation, which ran an article from Crete this week, one hotel has only just opened for the season despite that fact that the holiday season has already begun. Another said that only 50% of the rooms had been booked for the Summer.
Der Spiegel says that 300,000 fewer Germans will visit Greece this year because of the press impact of the stories about Greece. 400 hotels are up for sale including 48 on Rhodes and 44 on Crete.
So what about us? What will our reaction be? Are you dissuaded from going to Greece because of the issues there?

In Greece, there have been cries of outrage at the suggestion by some German parliamentarians that they sell off some of the Greek islands. The money raised from the sale, goes the suggestion, would reduce the large economic deficit that the country has. As there are about 6,000 Greek islands and only about 80 are inhabited, there remain a huge number which make no contribution to the Greek economy.
Is this such a bad idea?
There are islands in the Caribbean that have been sold and then developed for tourism. In the Maldives, islands are co-developed for tourism with the locals and the state receiving taxation. And there seems to be a ready market for people to buy islands so here is a slight alteration to the idea. The attraction of the Greek islands for tourists has existed for centuries.

Like many other eurozone countries, Greece suffered from having fewer tourists from the UK and Ireland last year. Overall money from tourism was down by 11% but that masked areas of growth. Some operators reported that some of the more expensive islands to go to like Kefalonia showed increases.
So given the state of the Greek economy and those headlines that litter the press, should anyone be worried about holidaying in Greece this year?
The simple answer is probably not.

Another country to major on its past is Greece as typified by the slogan (the headline above) that they will be running on the advertising early next year. But as with any successful tourist destination Greece blends the old with the modern. With a history and the remains of buildings going back millennia, part of everyday life is that almost wherever you try and put up a new building or a pipeline you hit Greece’s cultural past. (That would make Channel 4’s Time Team envious!)

In the last few days a number of countries have issued numbers on how tourism is performing. All four, Greece, Indonesia, Thailand and the United States have all shown a declineIn Greece tourism spending has dropped by nearly 18% for the first five months of the year compared to last year but in May alone [...]