Why have the traditional holidaymakers from Northern Europe stopped coming to Greece?

I am game. Save some retsina for me.

You sound like a travel agent :)

People may be fearing possible riots if there is an economic collapse (rather than simply an economic crisis).

Because you can’t trust Greece or rely on it to be open for business and entirely safe. You never know when a group of hooligans will set fire to your car, or throw hunks of marble at you in the street as you’re walking around Syntagma. And you CERTAINLY don’t know when there will be a large strike, which might close the airport and delay your flight, or if you manage to get there, close the museums/monuments you are there to see. Basically, until Greeks can get their acts together and stop whining about the state of the country and just be adults and go to WORK everyday, rather than striking all the time and destroying the city: it’s just not worth the risk. Why go to Greece when you can just go to Italy? The beaches there are lovely too! :) Honestly, I don’t think Greece deserves the tourism right now, with the sheer disrespect they are showing their own country, and the rest of the world. Do you think the tourism offices have been off limits in the past few years when the rioting gets out of hand and everyone starts burning the buildings to the ground? Nope. They clearly don’t care that tourism is the only thing hanging them by the very thin thread that keeps them from being a third world country… so why should anyone give them their business when they obviously don’t appreciate it?

@ItsAHabit Has hit the nail on the head. The “crisis” has been going on for many years, they just managed to hide it from the rest of the world until the new PM got in last year and decided to try to fix everything. The “collapse” is only inevitable, and from what I’ve seen there in the past just from the “crisis” this collapse will be the end of them. I don’t know about you, but I definitely don’t want to be there when that happens. I’ve been there the past few years for the riots that went on pretty much right in front of my apt building, and it was very, very dangerous and nasty. No one needs to deal with that madness when you can go somewhere much safer, and much more reliable.

Oh, and clean beaches? On the islands, sure. An hour or two away from Athens, sure. But IN/AROUND Athens? Not on your life! There’s more chemicals and parasites in those waters (not to mention actual trash, and petrol from the many ships going by) to make you sick for a lifetime. I read a study last year about the pollution in the water around Athens’ beaches, and people can actually get cancer from the nasty stuff in there. I stopped swimming in Athens after I read that.

John Cameron is talking about how the UK is pretty much broke. Ireland is having money issues. The other Northern European countries can’t be in the best economic shape right now, either. It’s not all about Greece’s collapse, but it’s also about the – let’s call it what it is, folks – depression happening worldwide.

I love Greece. Santorini is my favorite island. The euro crisis is no reason not to visit Greece. But some Europeans are really shocked about the extend of the corruption in Greece, like 100€ extra to get a special exam. Or governments cheating about their financials. And they are also shocked that so many Greeks don’t want to pay taxes and don’t pay taxes like VAT and rather want other Europeans pay the taxes for them.

Greece does have to run an image campaign as soon as the problems are rectified.