With Greece's present financial disaster, which seems to rival that of Dubai, it seems that there are two outside possibilities which might affect us all when we travel there:
1. In extremis, Greece may just leave the EU.
2. She may also leave the Euro zone and revert to drachmas as currency but this would certainly make her financial troubles much worse since the likely value of the drachma as compared with the euro would make repayment of her outstanding debts extremely difficult.
Let us hope that neither horrible outcome happens and that she manages to overcome her present difficulties.
Ive not been well this week so have not been watching much tv ect....are things really that bad...what went so badly wrong...have you any links I can read...tweetie
Greece was put under EU supervision last week.
we were discussing exchange rates on a HT thread earlier this year...and I said the UK pound was suffering because we had come clean about most of the bad debt...I said the euro zone was still keeping things close to its chest , but its own debt problems would come to light in the end and things would once again be better balanced between the pound and the euro...I thought it would be at the end of this holiday season as UK people spending less when in the eurozone or going else where....but this is worse than I thought it would be and a bit sooner.....tweetie
I do hope they get their problems sorted out but they have been getting worse over the last few years although nothing much has been said about them openly.
There is no way that Greece would or could leave the Euro or the EU. Everything the country imported would cost a fortune due to conversion rates/taxes etc. If the currency was suddenly changed, a beer that costs 3 Euros wouldnt suddenly become 300 Drachma or 60p? It just wouldnt happen. Yes our holidays cost more and its unfortunate, but its here to stay and we have to get used to it : (
The hotel that I have stayed at for the past 3 years have increased their prices for 2010 by 100%, after a couple of emails they did offer a reduction but this was still an unacceptable 35%. If this is an indication of what's happening on the tourist front they are not doing themselves any favours.
If I were Greek minister of tourism I would be offering incentives to hotels ect to bring extra tourists in...tweetie
This is a huge jump from what it has been over the last couple of years and, while its bad for the Eurozone, would be good news for the Brits this summer!! We'll see though. You heard it first here!
Petrol is now €1.44 a litre, after the latest price rise. If if you are travelling to the islands, remember everything comes by boat. The increased fuel and transport costs are passed to the customer/holidaymaker
Was thinking of going to Kos this year but after reading some of the posts, I am a bit worried about cost as we would be self catering.
Do you think it is wise to give Greece a miss this year.
M
Although I dont pretend to fully understand the financial mess some countries are in the UK debt ratio is 13% and Greece is 12.7%. It appears that we are in just as bad a state as Greece but because we dont have the Euro there's not the same fuss. We got 1.10e to the pound last year so even at 1 to 1 it wont make a big difference. Petrol is certainly expensive but we usually only cover 5/600 miles on holiday so again no big deal. We'll be there for weather and lifestyle as usual.
Having given Greece a miss last year, we were determined to go back this year .We have booked 2 weeks in August in Kephalonia, and hope that this crisis will not affect us too much, and prevent us from heading back to these beautiful Islands in 2011.
We went to Greece ( Rhodes ) for the first ime 2008 and was prepared for costs as people were telling us how expensive it was . Dont know if we done something wrong but it was one of the cheaper holidays spending money wise that we have ever had . We booked trips , ate out during the day , if we didn't like the look of evening meal we ate out and still brought money home with us . No we didn't take extra just in case . Guess where we are going this year Greece ( Crete ) , a different island . A holiday can be as expensive or as cheap as WE make it .
I don't think the exchange rate is of huge concern, sure it may move a bit but realistically it is not going to change hugely. The biggest factor is going to be the additional Taxes the Greek government brings in to recoup some money to balance the books. You might find the E2.50 beer becomes a E3.50 or even E4.00 beer. Soz for the lack of euro symbol, not quite learned that one yet
hi konky wonky....Greece will need to be careful doing things like that...will put off tourists ...and they really need to attract thousands more....the more tourists spend in the country these next few years the better....tweetie
IMO Greece is going to be a little more expensive this year once you actually get there, most hotels sell out during the holiday season anyway and adding E1.00 to the price of a bottle of beer is probably not going to change that.
Personally I love the Greek islands and I am happy to pay just a little more once there to visit. I love that most resorts other than the 18/30 ones still retain their Greek identity and there are not many visitors with the egg and chips brigade mentality that is now found everywhere in the likes of Spain (No offence if you like egg and chips!)
Not sure where konky wonky got the info that most Greek holidays are nearly sold out. I work in the industry and can tell you that even if this was the case, and it isnt it, it would be down to the fact that supply has been reduced dramatically. Alot more flights are now going to Egypt throughout the year with Turkey, Bulgaria and Tunisia on the up aswell.
As for Spain = Egg & chips. This is a reference that people often make to Spain which is a little unfair. True there are your Benidorms, Fuengirolas and the rest, but the likes of Costa de la Luz and northern Spain are fantastic and as 'typical' as you could possibly get. Greece is as egg and chips as Spain if you look in the right (or wrong) places, but its each to their own eh?
The fact of the matter is Greece is struggling and needs all the tourism it can get, and that was BEFORE all this debt stuff. Greece is simply the best place to holiday with great food and lovely people, but theres no doubt the Euro makes it alot more costly. Hopefully my prediction (which is looking a bit pathetic now) that the Euro will drop, will happen. We'll see.
I know what you mean joeyc been trying to sort out our October holiday with the reduction of flights from the uk [around 40% i was told] we cant find a suable flight without driving to the other-side of the country or taking late a flight that land at silly o'clock loosing the first day we have paid for, on top of that, now TC own both the main hotel suppliers many of the hotels we prefer are either no longer available or now silly prices,Greece as a country has other means of trade [shipping being one of the biggest] but many of the islands only have limited agriculture and tourism to keep everyone employed
Back to Spain - The VAST majority of Spanish package holidays sold in the UK are to commercialised resorts that have lost all their Spanish identity. Its all Only Fools And Horses & egg and chips. Of course if you go a little further off the beaten track you can find the true Spain but the typical customer buying a package holiday probably doesn't want to do that. Spain didn't get its egg and chips reputation for no reason.
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