Tourist information

This is a genuine letter from a visitor to our area last week, which was sent to their tour company. Greek translation is below for the benefit of those who are responsible for these employees.

"We wished to ask about a bus timetable to use buses from Ammoudara to Agios Nikolaos as you suggested was possible, a time table was grudging given but I needed to know where we caught it from AN back again, given the one way system we couldn’t assume we’d catch it where we got off, and as it would be dark it was important we knew for sure, though if stuck we could have used a taxi. She sneeringly told me ‘the bus station’ well I didn’t know A N had a bus station, York doesn’t for example. She could have politely, helpfully, on a map shown us where. In the event we drove in, but in other countries we’ve enjoyed using local buses to get about. I also asked about locations, days etc of local markets but she really couldn’t be bothered. There were other things I’d intended ask such as where the museums were in A N (your info gives opening times but not the street they are on) boat trips other than Spinalonga and other sites, attractions etc. as there weren’t many info leaflets about, but she was much more interested in chatting with her colleague. Her whole manner was very supercilious, very off putting. Lancaster Tourist office has just won an award for the way it dealt with mystery ‘shoppers’ on the phone in the office – well she would certainly have failed! Everyone else we encountered was very friendly and helpful. The one person we would have expected to be was very disdainful."

Θέλαμε να ρωτήσω κάτι σχετικά με ένα λεωφορείο χρονοδιάγραμμα για την χρήση από τα λεωφορεία στην Αμμουδάρα ΑΝ όπως αναφέρατε ήταν δυνατό, ένα χρονοδιάγραμμα φειδωλος ήταν δεδομένη, αλλά χρειάζεται να γνωρίζουμε πού θα αλιεύονται από ΑΝ πάλι, λόγω του συστήματος έναν τρόπο που δεν θα μπορούσαμε να Υποθέτω ότι θα έπαιρνα αλιευμάτων όπου θα ξεκινήσει, και όπως θα ήταν σκούρα ήταν σημαντικό γνωρίζαμε για σίγουρος, αν και αν κολλήσει θα μπορούσαμε να είχαμε χρησιμοποιήσει ταξί. Είναι εμπαικτικώς μου είπε "η στάση του λεωφορείου" και δεν ήξερα AN είχε ένα σταθμό λεωφορείων, δεν Υόρκη για παράδειγμα. Εκείνη θα μπορούσε να ευγενικά, χρήσιμο, σε ένα χάρτη, όπου εμφανίζεται μαζί μας. Σε περίπτωση που οδήγησε στην, αλλά και σε άλλες χώρες έχουμε απολαμβάνουν τη χρήση των τοπικών λεωφορείων να κυκλοφορώ. Ζήτησα επίσης από περίπου θέσεις, ημέρα κλπ των τοπικών αγορών, αλλά πραγματικά δεν θα μπορούσε να ενοχληθεί. Υπάρχουν άλλα πράγματα που θα είχε σκοπό να ζητήσει όπως τα μουσεία, όπου ήταν σε ένα (σου δίνει πληροφορίες φορές, αλλά δεν το άνοιγμα του δρόμου για τους), εκτός από πλοίο ταξίδια Σπιναλόγκα & άλλες τοποθεσίες & αξιοθέατα κτλ όπως δεν υπήρχαν πολλές πληροφορίες φυλλάδια περίπου, αλλά ήταν πολύ πιο ενδιαφέρονται να συζητάτε με τον συνάδελφό του. Το σύνολο υπεροπτικός τρόπο ήταν πολύ, πολύ απωθητικός. Lancaster Τουριστικά γραφεία μόλις κερδίσει ένα βραβείο για τον τρόπο με τον οποίο αντιμετωπίζονται με μυστήριο "αγοραστές" σχετικά με το τηλέφωνο στο γραφείο - και αυτή είναι βέβαιο ότι θα έχουν αποτύχει! Όλοι οι άλλοι που συναντήσαμε ήταν πολύ φιλικό και χρησιμο. Το ένα άτομο θα πρέπει να αναμένεται ότι θα ήταν πολύ περιφρονητική.

And we ask why we have no tourism ...........

This is not the first complaint about the staff in Tourist Information. Who do they think they are? Should they be fired and replaced with someone who understands the idea of "customer service"? Someone who can do this job correctly?

I think so ........

What do you think Mr Vardas ?

Dead end

The picture on Vassilakis blog of a sign reading "Dead End" was a great comment.

When returning visitors from Athens are targeted by the police for parking tickets (Anatoli), the season is expected to last until 18/08/09, we have turds floating in the sea and half the town is not being paid or collecting IKA stamps, it is no wonder that the more intelligent ones among us are preparing to leave.

Already many people who have supported the economy of Agios Nikolaos for many years have decided to leave the area. Even natives of the area, born and bred in Agios Nikolaos, are leaving because there is no work for them and no future for their children.

A financial expert from the U.K has recently left for Portugal because he sees no future for his child in Agios Nikolaos. Prices (the highest in Greece) have driven away the retired people and the businesses can no longer afford to pay their rents. One of my friends is leaving, taking his business to another area. Disillusioned with the lack of planning and modern thinking in this town. He spends over 60,000 euros a year in this town, all of which comes from outside Greece and is injected into the local economy. Just these two people leaving Agios Nikolaos have reduced the money taken by shops by over 100,000 euros per year.

It is too late now. Too late because of the talking, the delays, the lack of action, the lack of vision, the lack of control of noise pollution, the lack of control of parking, the dirty beaches, and most of all because of the old men who are controlling the town with ideas that were out of date in 1980.

This town is dead, and it is the end. Have fun, because, along with many other people, I won't be here to sit by the hospital bed to watch your tourism take its last dying breath.

Appolon Hotel

Oh dear, Oh dear.

The most imaginative thing we can do with a hotel is to convert it into accommodation for students who are studying ....... tourism.

I can imagine the examination question now

"What should you do with a large, well situated hotel, near to a beach and the shopping centre in a regional capital city?"

(a) Knock it down and build a car park because it is very close to the council offices

(b) Completely renovate it and market it correctly to a niche market which will support the local economy with high spending tourism.

(c) Use it to house tourism students for low rental rates.

Rats leaving a sinking ship

I know that rats desert a sinking ship, but when one of them has been lying dead (opposite Moritz bar) for three days shouldn't someone ( a road cleaner?) from the Demos remove it?

Before you ask. .... yes, the tourists have been taking photographs of it. Another great image being sent around the world via mobile phones to encourage tourism in the town.

Well done again.

It just gets better ......

The demolotion of the neo-classical building next to "Crete Home Finders" office is another example of the lack of imagination in Agios Nikolaos. Any other town would have used this beautiful building as a museum, or visitor centre. You can always rely on Agios Nikolaos to screw up.

The destruction of the old olive factory near Ammos beach is another example of the gross stupidity of the place. Where else would a historic building be converted into a car park?

Finally, where else would a taverna get a visit from the police and sent to Neapoli because they had a couple of local boys playing lyra to entertain the tourists?

This is the behaviour of a town with serious mental health problems.

Anyone know a good psychiatrist?

So that is where the tourists are!

Everyone keeps saying that tourism is depressed and that it is the fault of the world economy. Everyone is suffering and that makes us feel better here in Agios Nikolaos and Elounda.

My friends, I can tell you (because I was there on Saturday) that Rethymnon is not empty. There are thousands of tourists and they are all outside the hotels using the restaurants and bars. Sitting in a cafe I counted over 400 tourists walking past me towards the old town at 18.30. This figure doubled when the beach road was completely closed to traffic at 19.30.

The bars were charging six euros for a large beer, served with excellent mezedes and a free glass of cold water was served to every customer on entrance to the bars, if you had to wait to be served. Attractive and friendly bar staff smiled and made guests welcome. The prices were justified by the standard of service and small children played in the street with no fear of being hit by cars or motor cycles.

I stayed in a 5 star hotel, which was 30 metres from a beautiful, clean, sandy beach and 300m from the old town. It was one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in anywhere in the world. The management and staff were friendly and attentive and the breakfast was superb. An overnight car park, however, cost me 11 euros (!)

So........

The prices are higher than ours. They have quality accommodation, restaurants (no better, in my opinion, than those in Agios Nikolaos), the roads are closed to traffic in the evening to allow the tourists to safely walk around the town, and they have thousands and thousands of tourists who are all out in the evening spending money.

When we tried to close the town to traffic last year there was an outcry. The people of Rethymnon can manage to walk a few hundred metres to the bars and tavernas in the evening but we have obviously lost the use of our legs. The pleasure of sitting with a beer without the constant noise from motor cycles was probably the biggest difference between the two towns.

One, however, is a busy tourist resort, and the other is Agios Nikolaos.

Don't be fooled. There are thousands of tourists on the island, but nobody wants to come to Agios Nikolaos anymore. The town is dirty and noisy, the beaches are polluted, the traffic and parking are a nightmare and the police will give you a ticket just for breathing, whilst ignoring the major problems of hard drugs and anti-social behaviour.

Perhaps the bar and restaurant owners should go over there and take a look one evening. It would be very interesting to see what they had to say to the Mayor when they get back to this "ghost town"

You can complain and moan about the lack of tourism but if you don't change your attitude, stop the all inclusive hotels in the centre of the town and clean this place up, you won't have any tourists at all by 2012.

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.