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Greece is making an unprecedented offer to tourists that amounts to a free travel
insurance policy.

It says it will cover the extra costs for any tourists stranded in the country as a result
of industrial action or natural disaster.

The offer is part of an effort to improve Greece’s image, which has been damaged
by strikes and protests over government austerity measures. Strikes are continuing,
although the number of violent clashes has eased.

Greek tourism also suffered the effects of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, which
blocked air routes.

“We are guaranteeing to cover the extra room and board any visitor in Greece pays
even if stuck here because of a volcano in Iceland,” said the Culture and Tourism
Minister, Pavlos Geroulanos.

Tourism generates almost 20 per cent of the nation’s income, but industry experts
say bookings are down by about ten per cent. Mr Geroulanos said tourism
seemed to be recovering, although it was too early to make accurate forecasts.

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers a range of luxury hotels in Greece and the Greek islands.

Greek government officials and representatives of the tourism industry have held urgent meetings to discuss the negative image of Greece that’s being broadcast round the world.

Violent anti-austerity street demonstrations, which have left three people dead, have come as the spring tourist season is getting under way. Tourism is one of the few growth industries in Greece, accounting for about 16 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product and about one in five jobs.

“People will think twice about going to Greece,” said Ian Gamse, a director at London-based Otus & Co., which advises the luxury hotel chains Marriott International Inc. and Hilton Worldwide. “People who have booked are going to start calling their tour operators. If Greece can’t get the situation under control, it is going to be a big problem.”

According to the latest statistics from the Greek Institute of Tourism Research and Projections, there has already been a ten per cent drop in bookings from Germany and a seven per cent decline in British tourists.

The head of the Federation of Greek Tourism Enterprises, Nikos Aggelopoulos, voiced his pain for the death of the three people, and called for calm.

“Politicians should cooperate to solve a crisis created by all, and business people should show a different image of a Greece which has a vision for progress, social justice and prosperity. Otherwise the effects will be destructive,” said Aggelopoulos.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London has issued a warning that tourists to Greece should be aware of potential danger, including indiscriminate attacks on places frequented by expatriates and foreign travellers.

by Andy Moreton

Visitors to many parts of Europe will know that the smoking ban in public places is rigidly enforced – but not so in Greece.

It has more smokers than any other country in Europe (around 42 per cent of the population), but two attempts to cut the number of smoking-related deaths have failed – laws have simply been ignored.

The Greek government will now try a third time. From July 1st, thousands of restaurants and bars will have to build sealed-off smoking areas or declare themselves non-smoking establishments. Offices will have to be smoke-free. Those lighting up illegally will face fines of 500 euros (£425 / $700).

“Our society is more ready than ever to embrace this,” Health Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos told a news conference. “We will all be judged here … this is the start of an effort to change the mentality on what is this country’s most crucial public health issue,” he said.

The imminent ban on smoking appears to have given some people the incentive to kick the habit - hospital clinics that help people quit are reporting waiting lists of up to three months.

by Andy Moreton

Experience the new smoke-free Greece and choose a luxury hotel from Luxique’s unrivalled selection.

I wrote last week about how a city can benefit from a film that’s set in its midst – Vienna and The Third Man, for example.

But the highest grossing UK film of all time has gone further than that and given a tourism bounce to a whole country.

Mamma Mia, featuring the songs of Abba, is set on the Greek island of Skopelos and offers a sunny depiction of island life. Since its release last July, travel agents and low-cost airlines have reported a surge in bookings to all parts of Greece and her islands.

Sales of easyJet flights from the UK to Athens, for instance, have risen by 13 per cent in the past nine months. Its UK General Manager, Paul Simmons, says Mamma Mia, which has taken more than £420 million ($617 million) worldwide, seems to have re-ignited British passion for the whole of Greece. And he says it’s good value: “Despite the strength of the pound, the relatively low cost of living in Greece is making it affordable.”

Elsewhere in Europe, the picture’s not so rosy as the recession bites. Italy is the latest country to mount an international advertising campaign to try to lure back tourists.

Dubbed ‘Italia Much More,’ the 10 million euro (£9 million / $13 million) campaign includes television spots featuring tourists posing by Rome’s Colosseum and Venice’s Grand Canal, or enjoying Italy’s lesser-known sights like unspoilt beaches and ski slopes.
Italia Much More - Italian tourism ad campaign
The ads will be shown on national television in Italy’s main tourist markets - Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Britain, the United States and Canada.

Italy’s tourism chief, Matteo Marzotto, said: “We’re in the middle of a war; despite having had a good winter season, we expect problems during Easter.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has a wide selection of luxury and boutique hotels in Greece and Italy and their islands.

The Acropolis temples in the Greek capital, Athens, are being given a high-tech makeover.

Over the past two-and-a-half thousand years, the elaborately sculpted stones have fallen prey to a film of black crust from car exhaust fumes and industrial pollution.

Now, a team of Greek engineers and restorers are using innovative laser technology to clean the surface of the monuments, uncovering colours and ornamentation hidden for decades.

The team tested forty different methods, including mechanical and chemical processes, to find the safest solutions to restore the white of the marbles without losing detail.

The winner was the brainchild of Crete’s Foundation for Research and Technology, which created a system that uses two laser beams of infra-red and ultra-violet rays simultaneously. The new system blasts off layers of black film, leaving the marble details intact and without discoloration.

It’s a risky business though, requiring the utmost precision. In the past, restoration attempts have caused damage.

“The cleaning is not reversible,” said Evi Papaconstantinou, the head of the restoration team. “If you remove something, you cannot put it back in place. So we must be quite sure that we remove the unwanted pollutants and leave the substratum intact.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique offers top-class luxury Athens hotels with views of the Acropolis, including the sumptuous King George II Palace and Grand Bretagne.

Italy has given Greece back a fragment of the Parthenon sculptures.

The 2,500-year-old marble piece, measuring 14 inches by 13, depicts part of the robe and right foot of the Goddess of the Hunt, Artemis. It was in a large frieze that originally stood above the entrance to the temple in Athens.

It was among the marble pieces stripped from the temple in the early 19th century. A large proportion of them were taken by Lord Elgin, the then British Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, of which Greece was a part.

He sold them to the British Museum, where they reside today, despite Greece’s efforts to secure the return of what have become known as ‘The Elgin Marbles.’

The fragment given back to Greece had been in a museum in Sicily – Elgin had given it to the British Consul-General there on his way back to London. It took thirteen years of delicate negotiations by the Greek government to secure the piece on permanent loan and it’s hoped this will help in the campaign to have the Elgin Marbles returned from the British Museum.

The Greek President, Karolos Papoulias, told a news conference: “This is the first step toward healing the wound left on the holy temple by the removal of the Parthenon marbles.”

by Andy Moreton

Luxique has a fine selection of boutique and luxury hotels in Athens.

Workers building a new underground line in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki have uncovered more than 1,400 graves, dating from the first century BC to the fifth century AD.

The graves range from fragments of wooden coffins to elaborate marble enclosures in five-room family mausoleums. Treasures were also discovered, including jewellery, coins, armour, weapons and works of art.

Thessaloniki is Greece’s second largest city, with a population of around a million.
Archaeologists have also unearthed gold jewellery, weapons and pottery at an ancient burial site near Pella, the birthplace of Alexander The Great.

by Andy Moreton

A Greek court is considering a request by residents of the Aegean island of Lesbos to ban the use of the word lesbian as a term to describe gay women.

Three islanders brought the case, arguing that the term insulted their identity. Lesbos was the birthplace of the ancient Greek poet, Sappho, whose love poems inspired the term lesbian and the island has become a mecca for gay women from around the world.
The plaintiffs argued that the island’s population were the only true Lesbians – the dispute was over identity, not sexuality. “Gay women have every right to define themselves as they wish, but they don’t have the right to appropriate our national identity,” said one.
In the packed courtroom, one of the islanders wore a badge that read: “I am Paul and I am a Lesbian.” Another unfurled a banner that read: “If you are not from Lesbos, you are not a Lesbian.”
The court will deliver its ruling in the next two months.

by Andy Moreton