Yesterday TV-channels and news agencies reported
that “tousands of tourists in Greece
are being left to the mercy of fate” because of the hotel workers strike. This
news evoked perplexity and even indignation among players on this destination.
First, Russian tour operators reported to RUTI’s press relations service that
they have no idea about strikes, and afterwards same calls came from Greece. The
Head of Labirint Company Tatyana Zotova, being exactly in this country,
reported that it’s “calm and sleepy” in Greece and there are no talks about
hotels not serving tourists. The Sales Director of Aldemar Hotel chain Dimitris
Kharitidis confirmed this information to RATA-news as well.
RUTI called the Association of Greek Tourism
Enterprises (SETE) for the official clarification and, inspite of Sunday, soon
got the answer. The President of SETE Andreas Andreadis reported that at the
moment there are no problems with hotels, tourists relax without any worries.
He added that recently, and including closing days, there were no strikes in
the country.
Mr. Andreadis satisfyingly noted the amount of
hotels booked by tourists from most of the countris reached the targeted level,
and the tour flow from Russia
and Ukraine
has grown by more than 20% compared to the same period of the last year.
It can be suspected where the confusion of the
“informational issue” came from. There really was a one-day strike of the hotel
workers trade union in the region of Attica where Athens is located. However, by no means it
came to the tourists. 150 members of the trade union with posters and battle-cries
accompanied by TV cameras went out on the street, and that was it. But, from
all appearances, thу First channel showed exactly these frames telling about hotel
workers’ strike.
In 2011, Greece ranked the eighth place in
the rating of the most popular destinations among Russians. According to the
Russian Statistics, this country was was visited by 612.5 thousand tourists
from Russia
which is by 58.4% mora than in 2010. All in all, Greece receives 16 million tourists
annually.