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Coronavirus Threatens Greek Tourism

Anthee Carassava

   ATHENS, GREECE - After a brutal 10-year financial crisis, Greece was on
   course to a promising rebound. Businesses and exports were slowly but
   consistently growing, and tourism was booming. With the coronavirus,
   however, the biggest money-making industry for Europe's poorest
   economy, is in peril.

   This was supposed to be a record year, with this tiny, sun-kissed
   nation and its idyllic islands expecting three times as many travelers
   as its population of 11 million.

   Now, not even a single tourist with a hat and camera can be seen.

   Lyssandros Tsilidis, the president of the Federation of Hellenic
   Associations of Travel and Tourist Agencies, described a devastated
   tourism industry.

   From inexpensive hostels to five-star resorts, he said, no one has been
   spared. All trips have been canceled. All flights have been grounded.
   It's impossible to predict how and when it could all start up again, he
   said.

   For a country for which tourism accounts for 25 percent of gross
   domestic product and where 1 in 5 jobs is linked to the trade, COVID-19
   is exacting huge financial losses.

   The Greek economy is the European Union's second-most reliant on
   tourism, after Cyprus, which makes it much more vulnerable and adds
   more hardship to a nation still reeling from a brutal 10-year
   recession.

   To offset some of the pain, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis'
   government has stepped in, affording billions of euros to businesses
   while subsidizing employees' salaries to prevent massive layoffs.

   On the popular island of Rhodes, though, where more than 2 million
   mainly British, German and American tourists flock each summer, resort
   owners are now considering staying shut beyond the mandatory lockdown
   that ends later this month, through the summer.

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