Greece Letter: Chinese come calling as Greeks roll out new tourism model

The most important industry in Greece today is tourism. Some would say that, with the lack of manufacturing industries or a financial services centre, it's the only show in town.

And yet it's vulnerable to factors such as the Thomas Cook collapse, Brexit, climate change and the refugee crisis. To make matters worse, it has been the victim of its own success, with over-development not only saturating the market but destroying the very environment that it is there to sell. It needs a new deal.

Meanwhile, the greatest cultural and economic interest in Greece today comes from China, whose "Belt and Road Initiative" replicates the ancient "Silk Road" connecting China with Europe. Chinese investment in Greece is huge, most obvious in its ownership of Piraeus port, the busiest in the Mediterranean, where China plans massive expansion.

These two factors – the need to revitalise the tourist industry and the influx of Chinese ideas and capital – are now converging in Greece.

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Last month China and Greece signed a 15-point accord on “strengthening the comprehensive strategic partnership”. Increased tourist travel between China and Greece is on the agenda, as are Greek agricultural exports to China, Chinese banking in Greece, and joint scientific research projects.

Yet the most visible proof of China in Greece will be the huge increase in Chinese tourists, expected to rise tenfold, from 150,000 annually to 500,000 in 2021 and 1.5 million in the medium term. Direct flights Shanghai-Athens start next year.

Simultaneously, the Greek minister of tourism Haris Theoharis, has announced "a new tourism model", calling on all stakeholders to co-operate. City breaks, extending the season, product diversity, provision for people with disabilities, and, perhaps most necessary of all, reshaping training in the tourist industry will be key factors in the redesign.

If it were not for the obstacles in the way of positive thinking, one might expect much of Theoharis. But his previous track record speaks for itself: hired in 2011 from the private sector to mastermind the tax system, he resigned less than three years later due to political interference of the “this is the minister speaking. Don’t chase X for tax avoidance, he’s my brother-in-law” variety.

Overtourism

Theoharis’s initiatives are all the more necessary since Greece has also been identified by the London-based “At Risk Tourism Index” as among the world’s most endangered tourism destinations due to climate change and, more especially, overtourism.

Yet at the World Tourism Market, Theoharis stated “we do not use the word ‘overtourism’, even for Santorini” – a denial that this is Greece’s most saturated, overexploited island, where the locals are screaming “no more tourists!”

Gerald Durrell, who owed much of his later worldwide success as a conservationist to his childhood in Corfu in the 1930s, was saddened, even 50 years ago, by the extent of overdevelopment on the island.

And he encountered political resistance to conservation. Asked by the mayor to sit on a committee to protect the unique features that are so attractive to tourists, he discovered that the committee had no sooner been formed than it was disbanded. Durrell called this a mixture of “chicanery and stupidity”, and saw Corfiots “on their merry way to hell in a handcart”.

How do you sustain and develop tourism without increasing numbers, particularly in favourite destinations such as Mykonos (for the super-rich) or Santorini (for marriages and sunsets)?

The answer lies partly in achieving higher profits from existing numbers and partly in diversifying the market.

The presentation at this year’s World Tourism Market focused on “quality, sustainability and authenticity”. Tourism in Greece will be “multilevel and multifaceted”, offering “the full experience”. This is an area where Greece has, up to now, failed.

Niche markets such as cultural festivals (including food and wine), creative writing courses, skiing, marinas, mountaineering, need not only start-up enthusiasm but intensive overseas marketing. Yet the Greek National Tourism Organisation is not equipped to meet Theoharis’s call for diversification or promotional know-how.

Greatest asset

Greece’s greatest asset, however, is not its coastline or its climate or its antiquity, but the volcanic, creative intelligence of its young people.

In the past decade over half a million graduates have emigrated, most of them with little hope of returning. Of those who remain, desperately seeking meaningful employment, there is little reward for initiative.

Yet in science, computing, design, cuisine, film-making, young Greeks are bursting with ideas and starting to make their mark. Chinese investment in artificial intelligence (AI) technology in Greece, with the Deepblue initiative at Thessaloniki University, is a milestone.

In the 1960s, Durrell attributed the rot to get-rich-quick on the part of locals. Today the principal beneficiaries are non-national corporations, exporting the profits from the exponential growth in resortification and cruise ships, neither of which contributes much to the local economy.

Greece needs vigorous advertising, with young people saying: “Welcome to our life! Welcome to our culture! Welcome to our future!”