About now, Charlie Chahine should be welcoming his first international guests of the season to his Suites of the Gods resort on Santorini, Greece's most popular holiday island.
ATHENS - About now, Charlie Chahine should be welcoming his first international guests of the season to his Suites of the Gods resort on Santorini, Greece’s most popular holiday island.
“The situation now is at zero, nothing is moving. How will tourists get here without airplanes? In a submarine?” says Chahine. Around him, the whitewashed buildings of Fira, the island’s main settlement, are a ghost town. The pandemic threatens not only to rob Santorini of income and jobs; it risks sending Greece, whose tourism industry makes up a fifth of the economy, sliding back toward the dark days of the euro zone crisis a decade ago.
Greece’s sovereign debt is expected to balloon out to almost 200% of economic output, more than undoing the gains earned through the painful public spending cuts that the euro zone and IMF demanded as the price for bailouts.Though it has one of Europe’s best records at handling the pandemic, with 2,678 coronavirus cases and 148 deaths, its tourism industry relies overwhelmingly on overseas visitors, especially from Europe, the United States and China.
“There are encouraging signs that its response will be commensurate to the measures announced by the ECB.” “This season is not going to be like the other years,” Tourism Minister Harry Theoharis told Reuters. “I’d be a fool to believe this could ever be the case.”
France Dernières Nouvelles, France Actualités
Similar News:Vous pouvez également lire des articles d'actualité similaires à celui-ci que nous avons collectés auprès d'autres sources d'information.
Portugal to take up to 60 unaccompanied migrant children from Greek campsPortugal is to take up to 60 unaccompanied children from Greek refugee camps, according to Socialist Party lawmaker Isabel Santos, as concern mounts over the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the vulnerable group.
Lire la suite »
5 charts show which travel sectors were worst hit by the coronavirusFrom spring breaks to summer holidays, the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted travel plans globally as lockdown measures keep much of the world's population at home.
Lire la suite »
'Our life is in danger': Hawaii battles record unemployment with no end in sightHawaii is facing one of the worst unemployment rates in the nation as coronavirus restriction have shut down the state&39;s tourism-dependent economy.
Lire la suite »
'Our life is in danger': Unemployment hits 34% in Hawaii with no end in sightHawaii is facing massive unemployment as stay-at-home orders and a virtual shutdown of the state's once mighty tourism industry have left residents reeling, leaning on their savings or unable to pay rent and feed their families.
Lire la suite »
Reopenings bring new cases in South Korea, virus fears in ItalyThe new flareups — and fears of a second wave of contagion — underscored the dilemma authorities face as they try to reopen their economies.
Lire la suite »
Venerable but vulnerable: Centenarians hit hard by coronavirusThe oldest Americans — people who are 100 or older — are among the most vulnerable in the coronavirus pandemic.
Lire la suite »