Accrording to rhinocarhire.com, several years of austerity measures together with near daily scenes on the news of riots in protest at unemployment and cuts in public services gave grave cause for concern to tourists considering taking their annual holiday in Greece but recent comments from the Greek prime minister saying that the worst was over seems to have reassured many tourists who are now keen to dip their toes back into the Aegean market.
In a similar story to Spain, reports of run down resorts and a reduction in facilities had led many to shun Greece in favour of less badly hit Turkey and whilst the situation is the very much unchanged on the mainland, tourists have shown interest in many of the popular islands such as Santorini, Zakynthos and Crete which are deemed to have been not so badly hit as the mainland resorts.

Monitoring online searches with its specialist tour company Manos, Thomas Cook has seen enquiries for Santorini double when compared to the same period last year whilst Zakynthos and Crete have seen near doubled enquiries.

Separately, the company’s destination tracker Holiday Monitor shows that Greece has now retaken second spot behind Spain in the popularity stakes after slipping to a poor third in recent years.

The combination of low cost holidays, cheap deals locally on car hire, accommodation and eating out as proprietors scramble for business has led tourists to identify the islands as a great value holiday destination combining sun, sandy beaches, history and archaeology as well as great food and the traditional Greek welcome.

Greece desperately needs foreign income and the news has provided a welcome fillip to the economy.

The survey also found more encouraging news for tour operators with nearly half of consumers in the UK identifying an overseas holiday as their most important purchase this year after years of cutting back to survive. These figures are reinforced by the news that Thomas Cook has received 32m visits to its website this year.

Photo: from Elafonisos destination, which located in the far south-west of Crete island!!!