Sunday 5 July 2009

Tourism? What can be done?











This photograph was taken on 01/07/09 at Ammoudi beach. Two days later one of my friends had dermatological problems from swimming there, possibly due to the human faeces floating in the water. The photograph on the left was also taken on 01/07/09 at Karovastasi beach. It was covered in rubbish, plastic bottles and debris. How is this a Blue Flag beach? Let us hope that I was the only one to take a photograph that day and that the Blue Flag authorities do not see it.

http://www.heraklion.gr/en/visitor/visitor.html is a professional website, as is http://www.chania.gr/en/city/welcome.html

Take a look, and compare them to www.agiosnikolaos.eu

The internet is a vital marketing tool and a much better investment than sending people on "paid holidays" to trade exhibitions around the world.

Cheap tourism fills the all-inclusive hotels with noisy "no money" tourists from poor countries. For two nights the residents and tourists around the Hermes hotel have been unable to sleep because of illegal beach parties fuelled by cheap vodka from Lidl and encouraged by tour operators. At least the 18-30's from Britain spent money in the bars! The bars and restaurants are empty and the shops are closing, only to be replaced with Chinese and Pakistani shops selling cheap goods.

Our children have no work and are leaving the area. All day and night they drive around on (specially modified for this purpose) noisy motorcycles causing even further damage to the little tourism we have. Their parents have debts to the banks which cannot be repaid. Soon people will lose their homes, their cars and what is left of their dignity.

Money is happily invested in more cafe bars for the unemployed children to sit in (drinking frappes), but not in accommodation to attract high spending visitors. Our investment priorities are very different to places like Rethymnon and Xania. How many people have built villas (which they are now unable to sell) for a "fast profit" when a long term investment in quality boutique hotels on the harbour would ensure income for many years for them and their children. The future will not be from selling coffee to TEI students or tolerating their graffiti and noisy anti-social behaviour, which local children seem to think is "cool" and copy like the idiots they are. Their parents of course do nothing to stop it.

The Loggia and Panorama hotels on the harbour are closed to tourists. Where else in Greece would two harbour front properties like these be left unused? In Rethymnon, Xania or Heraklion they would be high quality boutique hotels commanding rental rates of 200 + euros per room per day, for example http://www.hotelcivitas.com/en/prices.html

How long will it be before someone realises that the town needs to take action? It needs to be re-marketed and this must be done now, immediately, to avoid the town suffering even more in 2010. Many tourists still believe that this town is full of noisy bars and disco clubs and is like Malia. This stops higher earners from coming to Agios Nikolaos and is not a true reflection of the town. An initial marketing campaign (including a new website) to reverse this would not cost more than 50000 euros if sourced in the U.K. Sadly, I have no doubt that another two years of meetings and sub-commitees would be required to make even the simplest of decisions.

Every day I hear the complaints from professionals and every day I see that nothing positive is done to change it. The Demos are useless and DEAN under Varda, is even more useless. Finally the Mayor has admitted, two years after being clearly told at a meeting, that the all inclusive problem is killing this town. We all know he is frightened of the hotel group who own most of the hotels in the town. That was proved when they blackmailed their way to getting the new "marina" at the Mirabello. I understand that this is not how politicians are meant to think but perhaps he should think of his responsibilities to the whole community and not just the politics of remaining in power and taking care of his friends and allies.

And finally, on the subject of our declining tourism

In my opinion, if you are drowning, it is always better to attempt to swim than to wait for someone to throw you a lifebelt.

Even more important here of course, because if it was anything like Ammos beach, the lifeguard would be 60 years old, a friend of someone in the Demos and would probably be asleep while you were drowning.

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