The Castle is among Greece’s most popular tourist destinations. More than 32 million foreign travelers checked out Greece last year.
Yorgos Karahalis/AP.
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Yorgos Karahalis/AP.
The Acropolis is among Greece’s most popular traveler destinations. More than 32 million foreign travelers checked out Greece in 2015.
Yorgos Karahalis/AP.
The coronavirus pandemic has actually all but shuttered international tourism. As quarantines and social distancing continue in nations worldwide for the foreseeable future, airline companies are warning of personal bankruptcy, hotels are closed, cruise ships are docked and trip buses are idle.
Greece is among some nations that have begun offering interactive websites to keep their tourist brand names afloat– “till we can all be together face to face once again,” Dimitris Fragakis, secretary-general of the Greek National Tourist Company, stated in a declaration on Thursday.
Greece’s tourism authorities, in cooperation with Google, introduced the greecefromhome.com site this week.
” You’re at house,” the site states, “but that does not mean your mind can’t take a trip … here’s your opportunity to experience it all. The archaeological sites and museums, the glorious sea, the mountains and lakes, the villages and customs, even gastro and walking tours– exploring, sailing, hiking, rafting, tasting, discovering … all from the safety of your home.”
Visitors can take a virtual trip of Corfu, peer at archaeological sites, fly over island beaches, listen to Greek music and learn more about Greek food. On an associated YouTube channel, nationwide opera singers perform from home and a Greek white wine professional shares suggestions.
The virtual gos to will not bring in tourism income, but until genuine gos to become possible once again, it’s a way to “keep in touch with our audience, to reveal them our country and whatever Greece embodies in concepts, worths, experiences,” Tourist Minister Haris Theocharis said in a declaration on Thursday.
Before the coronavirus altered whatever, Greece was finally turning a corner after suffering for several years during an economic depression that shut the nation out of international markets and shot joblessness as high as 27%.
Greece earned more than $19 billion from tourist last year, and tourism accounts for about 20%of the nation’s GDP. The country invited more than 32 million foreign travelers in 2019.
The pandemic forced most Greek hotels to close last month. On Friday, the financing minister stated he anticipates the Greek economy to shrink by between 3%and 4%this year
COVID-19 has put more 75 million tourism-related tasks at “instant danger” worldwide, the World Travel and Tourist Council, a market group, noted in a plea for help to G-20 leaders last month.
Already, profits from international tourism had grown for 10 consecutive years, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization. To help the industry, it is using to support business owners in what it calls a ” Recovery Solutions for Tourist Difficulty,” with a concentrate on crisis management, sterilizing techniques– and digital tourism.