Kato Gouves’ ‘lonely street’

After the recent Athens Olympic Games, we all believed what we were told by the government and the media: better days in tourism were on the horizon.  

It was said that thousands of visitors would appreciate the seriousness, the beauty, the organization, the security and all the services throughout our Olympics, and those thousands would multiply to . . . several millions.

Well, we haven’t seen anything remotely resembling an increase by any number, much less “millions” – unless our townships are the only ones not touched by this “onslaught” of holiday-makers.

Shopkeepers throughout Kokkini Hani, Gouves, Hersonisos and Malia sit in their stores like mourners at a wake – almost unanimous in their lamenting of this year’s tourist season.

One can now take a stroll down any of our townships’ shopping avenues, once bustling with customers at this time of year, and the line from the old Elvis Presley song, Heartbreak Hotel, immediately comes to mind: It’s down at the end of lonely street.

The enormous changes in our “number one industry” that have occurred in the last 10 years, primarily that notorious small-business-killer called “all-inclusive,” lead us to conclude that many independent businesses must close so that the larger ones, and especially those backed by foreign financing, might live on.

That’s what the international scene dictates in order to completely control the sector. It is the new liberal thinking we have embraced.

Just like the invasion of the multinational department stores, like Carrefour, Makro and Lidl, similar tactics could apply in the tourist market here, especially when the rewards are so great if you manage to monopolize certain sectors.

That’s where TUI’s proposal was aiming regarding the construction and exploitation of the Kasteli airport.

These management companies have as their target, besides increasing customer numbers, to control transportation and dictate where to stay and for how long.

To simplify it, the entire procedure mirrors the production of a tomato in Ierapetra: shipping it to many destinations and selling it to consumers. And it all being done by one person - the producer – so all the profits from beginning to end are in someway involved with him.

Unfortunately, although we, as a combined tour destination, are mostly good producers, it’s the middlemen who package and sell the “tomato” to the consumer who reap the profits, while we remain simple observers to the “complicated intricacies” of tourism – the intricacies which we have never served or supported in the first place.

On the international high level tourism competition, we remain the stagnant spectators, with many opinions, complaints and desires, but stuck on past and out-of-date planning and views.

Copycatting characterizes us, as we don’t take into account the beauty and particular pluses of our country or townships.

In addition, tourism – our biggest product – is not being supported. Education on the subject has remained in its infancy because it serves the purpose of certain educators.

There is no tourism ministry separate from the ruling parties, and the reason is simple.

Unfortunately, we are used to identifying our business acumen with party acumen, and are satisfied with some “small” favors from our party for some monetary gains, or to cover up certain illegalities.

But this way, the auditing mechanism in our government becomes weak and ineffective. We don’t understand that auditing creates the bases for quality. Just like many years ago, when we were not ready to receive our first guests, we are not ready now to receive the new Euro tourism, which establishes our country as the most expensive in consumer goods in the EU, with a barrage of negative consequences for the immediate tourism future.

By cutting expenses and hiring cheap labor from the eastern bloc, our businesses have been reduced to small miss-information centers; like in tavernas where, “foreign” waiters recall the beauty and/or cheapness of their own country, while explaining the local below standard “working conditions” to the Dutchmen and Brits they serve.

Some years back, there was an effort to make the tourist season longer, and now we stress for it to remain, hopefully, within three to four months.

“I’m lucky to get two solid months in July and August,” commented one disgruntled Kokkini Hani shopkeeper, watching plastic-bracelet-clad tourists passing his store.

The contracts with the tour operators, who at one time spoke of high or low season prices, are now bargains, bargains, bargains.

Greece has become an expensive tourist destination without the “expensive” reflecting on our income, as it would be logical.

In our townships, the average age of the visitors lessens every year and it is a factor of inconsistency for many businesses, like jewelry shops and tavernas.

The constant readjustment of business practices and the substitution of gold with lemon-vodka or mousaka with Tia Maria is not a solution, as there is an overabundance of bars and night spots.

“The only ones making any money these days are those clubs in Malia catering to young crazies,” said the owner of a long-established family taverna in Hersonissos. “If that’s what local tourism has been reduced to, I don’t want any part of it.”

The existence of tourist organizations cannot really solve, or even pinpoint, our problems because they lack objectivity, scientific acumen and a complete statistical backing.

In cooperation, our three townships could form an institute for tourist research with the purpose of jointly tackling the problems, counseling businesses, promoting alternative tourism and correctly marketing our townships and their tourist pluses.

Hersonissos sidewalk – without shoppers

TOP