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In Greece, tourism industry recovers quickly

Tourism accounts for nearly 10 percent of the country's economy.

By Ed Adamczyk
Tourists visit the Parthenon at the Athens' Acropolis archaeological site in Athens, Greece on July 8, 2015. Photo by Dimitris Michalakis/UPI
Tourists visit the Parthenon at the Athens' Acropolis archaeological site in Athens, Greece on July 8, 2015. Photo by Dimitris Michalakis/UPI | License Photo

ATHENS, Greece, July 27 (UPI) -- Tourism in Greece has made a quick recovery from the country's economic problems, statistics and anecdotal evidence suggest.

Greece's economy, ravaged by oppressive debt, a recession and a high unemployment rate, was spared by a series of government austerity measures, bank closures which included restrictions on ATM withdrawals and the arrangement of billions of Euros in loans for European lenders, all of which brought the country back from the edge of bankruptcy.

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Hotel bookings in the early summer dropped by 20 percent, as tourists worried about uncertain access to cash and other factors, but have recovered.

"We are weathering the crisis reasonably well. We are hoping that we won't go through another round of political drama for the rest of the summer season. We had 22 million arrivals for the whole of last year and if calm prevails we may even slightly surpass that level," Aris Ikkos of the Institute of Greek Tourism Confederation told the Wall Street Journal.

Prices for luxury accommodations have fallen, this summer, by about 15 percent, but a newly-imposed value added tax, part of the bailout agreement, greets tourists only after they get to Greece.

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Tourism accounts for 9.5 percent of the country's gross national product, or 17 billion Euros ($18.9 billion); indirect benefits, including shopping, restaurants and similar spending opportunities, account for another 45 billion Euros ($49.96 billion), the institute said. The Mediterranean Sea weather and appreciation of Greece's 2,300-year history are the country's prime tourist attractions.

Despite the recent economic upheaval, Greece remained within the Eurozone, and has not abandoned the use of the Euro as currency; that may be the outstanding reason tourism remains strong.

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