Somehow managing to keep a straight face, Tourism Minister Kostas Markopoulos shocked local businessmen from Alikarnassos to Malia by declaring that Greek tourism hasn’t been hit as hard by the global financial crisis as was earlier forecasted.  

"Despite the economic situation things are proceeding in a satisfactory fashion... the disaster scenarios fortunately have not been fulfilled," Tourism Minister Kostas Markopoulos told reporters after briefing Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis.

And, here's how some of our local business people responded to Mr. Markopoulos' remark.

"He may be able to tell that bs to Karamanlis, but let him try to say it to my face," said an outraged Kato Gouves shopkeeper, who refused to give his name. "If the prime minister wants to know the truth, he should come here and walk down our main shopping street at eight o'clock, which used to be our busiest period. He doesn't have to worry…he definitely won't be mobbed!"

Signs of the times: Empty shops…

"I don't know how he can say such a thing," said Kostas Karakatsanis, owner of Venus Leather in Kokkini Hani. "In the spring, seeing what the financial situation was like, we prepared ourselves for a dismal year. But this is much worse than what we expected. Even the tourists that did manage to come to Crete came with no money. They only leave their hotel for an after dinner stroll, not to shop." 

Eva Kokalis of the Kokalis Jewellery Store in Kato Gouves agrees with Mr. Karakatsanis.  

"This has been a terrible, terrible year," she said. "Even in August, when the hotels are full, there's no one around the streets, neither shopping nor eating.

Mrs. Kokalis' complaints are with the local Gouves government, not Athens.

"They keep talking about putting in street lighting and sidewalks, but what good are sidewalks if there's no one to use them?" she stated. "I've been here for 20 years and in the past we didn't need sidewalks to get the people out and about. The Gouves demos should form an official committee and negotiate with the big hotel owners to encourage the visitors to shop in the local markets."

Mrs. Eleni Zografaki, who owns a taverna and children's play area in Malia, said: "We are experiencing this year's crisis on a more intense level and if nothing else the minister challenges us with his statements. We fall short on quality as well as quantity in tourists." 

Iraklis Lasithiotakis, who, with his wife Eleni, owns a taverna inside the Ostrich Farm in Episkopi, stated: "The crisis has touched everyone. For ten days now we have not had one single customer and that says it all. Even the people coming to the farm don't seem to have any extra money for lunch or dinner."

The Khronicles informed Minister Markopoulos by email of the local reaction to his statement, and he was asked to comment, but he didn't respond.

Meanwhile, Iraklion MP Manolis Stratakis pointed to recent research that confirms the negative forecasts about tourism, "forecasts that the Tourism Ministry refuses to admit."

He said the downslide, according to the actual tour operators, is greater than official statements.

"According to the research, German tourism on Crete is down 50 percent, British 35 percent," he stated. "Even Greek tourism on Crete is down 20 percent." 

The MP went on to say that the figures are even more drastic in local communities like Kokkini Hani and Gouves.

"The tourist shops (in these areas) show a big reduction in sales, in some cases they are down over 60 percent, while many shops were forced to close their doors," he stated.

Mr. Stratakis also noted that tour agencies warn about a worse 2010 season as the bankruptcies of intermediate tourism institutions take place and prices continue their vertical downslide.

Finally, he asked all the ministers involved in tourism just what measures they intend to take to increase the tourist turnout in the entire Gouves region so that the local economy is stimulated and local businesses can survive, and what sort of corrective interventions will be initiated so that a worse 2010 season is avoided.