I suppose at some point I should discuss the elephant in the room that is the Greek Crisis and how it has affected tourism (from my point of view on the ground here in this part of Kefalonia). We had many comments over the past 2 years from customers, friends & family to ask if it is safe to come to Greece. Even at the height of the rioting, the islands were a complete world away and largely unaffected. We endured a few strikes but nothing compared to Athens. Tourism is what holds Greece up and the islands are totally dependent on it. Over the last few years we have seen a dramatic fall in tourism, accompanied by cut backs in things such as flights coupled with rising costs in fuel as well as other things. Flights this year are 50% more than last year, many enquiries led nowhere after researching flights, many bookings were cancelled at the beginning of the season with this reason cited. It was a gloomy outlook at the beginning of the season. However, this year has become the busiest in many years. Tourist business owners that survived the initial crash have scaled back, regrouped and put energy into their smaller businesses creating quality over quantity. Kefalonia will always be a more expensive destination compared to islands famous for their 18-30 culture. People are paying for quality. Kefalonia has rejected all-inclusive plans that tour operators try to force on business owners and have rejected the 18-30 culture and all the problems that brings with it in favour of staying strong and keeping to their ideals of a quiet, peaceful, problem-free environment. Kefalonia is to be applauded for sticking to their principles in the face of potential failure. This year saw less flights and rising fuel and taxes making the flights left much more expensive BUT this years success should create MORE flights next year or the year after hopefully creating a bit more competition & redressing that balance. In the meantime be rest assured that the crisis is not deepening, prices are now relatively stable and you are in a safe environment on Kefalonia. Greece still has a long way to go to achieve economic recovery but with the support of travellers throughout the world it can achieve this much quicker. Thank you to all the visitors this year for choosing to stay here for your holidays!
Posted on: Thu, 18 Jul 2013 10:46:45 +0000
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