According to estimates put out by the Greek Alpha Bank, 2013 was a record year for tourism in Greece, with more than 18 million tourists.
The blogger Pitsirikos finds all the hype over the figures hypocritical because, at the same time, over 70 percent of the Greek population did not go on holiday:
“I don’t know how happy someone who can’t afford to go on holiday in his own country can be when he hears that the number of foreign tourists has risen….
“Countless tourist operators have had to close down because the Greeks couldn’t go on holiday and because the foreign tourists with their all-inclusive bracelets don’t spend any money in the local economy. Trying to pitch the large number of foreign tourists as a success is an insult to our intelligence.”
Source: Eurotopics, February 14
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