Greek tourism is entering its “winter hibernation,” sometimes a little earlier, sometimes a little later, facing the perennial issue of seasonality and showing a significant inability to attract tourists during at least the five winter months.
The reasons are many and complex, and they certainly stem primarily from a lack of long-term strategy, with the governments of the past 30 years failing to achieve anything, despite their announcements and intentions, which ultimately remain just that—intentions. The millions of tourists who visit our country every summer may be unaware that we have mountains with beautiful villages and ski resorts, but that is not the only thing the winter traveler is looking for. Speaking of our major inbound tourism markets—namely, Europeans— the Alps, with their incredible slopes stretching across many countries and the fairy-tale villages dotting the landscape, more than make up for it.
Obviously, it’s unlikely that anyone would come all the way from France just to ski down the slopes of Mount Parnassus, but they’d easily head to any island—big or small—in the southern Aegean. But why don’t they go there? Simple: They go elsewhere, where «the doors are open and they’re waiting for them.» Where? Spain, Turkey, but also Portugal, Cyprus, Malta, and others.
Winter tourism is divided into three main categories: sun, skiing, and city breaks.. A quick look at this year’s figures reveals the high demand for travel during the winter of 2021–2022, especially after the months-long lockdown caused by the pandemic. In fact, Winter demand is returning to pre-pandemic levels According to Jet2.com and Jet2holidays.
In response to these developments, British airlines have increased their seat capacity for the winter season to Turkey and the Canary Islands in Spain at nine of their 10 bases in the United Kingdom. As a result, they added extra flights to Tenerife, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria, Antalya, and Dalaman from various British airports, offering a total of 43 winter destinations for sun, skiing, and city breaks. The weather at these destinations differs very little from the weather in our country, however, Unfortunately, we're not on the tour operators' itineraries. Many Europeans travel during the winter. Retirees, of course, but also families with their children on school break. Young people, too, who mainly choose to visit cities. In fact, It is estimated that more than 40% of winter tourists are repeat visitors.
Obviously, Greece can’t support mass ski tourism, but it could certainly attract tourists seeking sunshine and nature—and we don’t mean sunbathing and swimming every day, but rather the mild climate—and visitors to our cities, who are a mixed crowd of vacationers and business travelers. The many Greek cities, both large and small—with the exception of Athens and, to a lesser extent, Thessaloniki—have failed to develop their tourism sector, at almost any time of year. Many have not even managed to develop domestic tourism.
The Greek islands were deserted and continue to be deserted during the winters, with thousands of tourism workers left unemployed or, at best, receiving benefits from the unemployment fund. Entire regions are plunged into darkness, and many people still believe—even today—that those in the tourism industry spend the winter relaxing, shopping, go on exotic vacations, or harvest olives. The government is losing a huge amount of revenue and, of course, is unable to cope with the surge in tourism during the three main summer months. The nearly 34 million tourists who visited in 2019, within just a few months, pushed the infrastructure to its limits, and no one really knows how much they cost the country compared to how much money they spent here.
But even if some hoteliers were able to convince a tour operator to bring planes full of tourists to an island in the winter, the question would be what they would do there. With bars, restaurants, and cafes closed, no regular or interesting cultural or sporting events, and no tourist facilities for entertainment and sports—such as golf courses— the traveler would likely regret choosing Greece as a vacation destination. And while alternative forms of tourism—which do not require large investments or new infrastructure, such as walking tours and nature tourism in general— religious tourism, and others—are, we might say, now a permanent fixture, especially on the larger islands and in the mainland—there is no intention to organize them.
Of course, there are some isolated efforts, but these mainly involve large hotel complexes located near cities. In any case, hoteliers themselves do not seem willing, in most cases, to keep their hotels open. Certainly, His mindset—“we close at the end of October”—needs to change, but this requires coordination and collaboration among tourism business owners, both with each other and with the government.
