Europeans are avoiding vacations to Greece this summer fearing instability sparked by the debt crisis, industry sources say, inflicting a hard blow to the country's already devastated economy. "From the aftermath of the elections on May 6, we have experienced a 50 percent drop in bookings," said George Drakopoulos, director general of the association of Greek tourism enterprises (SETE).
Though tourism from Germany this year is back on the rise, overall booking numbers are still plummeting ahead of the busy summer season, Drakopoulos said.
"Hotels make appealing offers, but that is not the issue here. For many of the tourists visiting Greece, it is a matter of security on top of value for money."
This comes after a particularly profitable 2011 season, where Greece benefited from the unrest in the northern Africa. According to SETE, tourism represents 15.7 percent of Greece's output and employs 768,000 people, either directly and indirectly.
Panagiotis Moriatis, president of the association of hotel owners of Nafplion - a highly popular tourist destination close to the Bronze Age site of Mycenae - said business this year should drop by up to 15 percent.
Moriatis blamed bad publicity: "Foreign media only portray the troubles in Athens and show nothing of the rest of Greece, where conditions are the exact opposite." "Athens is the city that has suffered the greatest damage. Fewer tourists visit Athens and this takes its toll on other cities," Moriatis added.
Germans in particular are thought to be avoiding Greece in fear of retribution by angry locals for two years of austerity measures many Greeks link to Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel.