greece, economic instability v.s. travel expectations

dan, (with all the caps except your name and address) Please lay off the caps key. We respond the same with or without the SHOUTING. Dunno about day to day in Greece, but I will chime in about Italy. There was a time not too many years ago when Italy had more than one government a year. It has has relative stability for a while. When there was so much government instability the tourists kept coming and life went on. Knowing Italy, unless you run into a demo or a strike, life keeps on. Strikes have always been a fact of life there. Things throughout Europe are tougher - maybe that's the case in Alaska, too? We just get on with the day. The architecture, coffee, the Pope, the crowded buses and the occasional pickpocket will still be there. Buy your tickets and come on down....

The main effect on tourists are strikes. Strikes that shut down transit make it difficult, but not impossible, to get around. Strikes that shut down museums or sites make your trip less rewarding. But they are intermitent and cannot be planned for more than a week out. Civil unrest is typically confined to specific areas of a city, say near universities or in large public plazas near seats of government. Avoid those and you avoid protests. You may see some decrease in tourism, but not likely in areas like the Greek islands. Prices flucuate only with demand. And please don't shout...

Italy is very steady right now, still a lot of tourism. Public demonstrations are fairly rare right now. Might change if Berlusconi doesn't resign on Monday (I don't think he will). In general, I think even with more economic problems, Italy will stay pretty steady for the next few years. Of course, none of us can predict the future and this may change pretty quickly. In Greek the situation is much more volatile. A few weeks ago I spent a weekend in Thessaloniki. LOVED my time there, really enjoyed Greece, but I chose Thessaloniki over Athens because I simply didn't know what the situation would be like even a month ahead of time when I was booking. As far as foreigners visiting--there was a piece of graffiti I found that said something like 'Dear visitors, we are glad to have you here. Thank you for visiting. But you should know that our government and police are corrupt, the people do not support them.' etc etc. I thought it summed up the situation pretty well. Tourism has decreased, but not by terrible amounts yet. Of course, if Greece falls even more, tourism will also fall. Greek Isles are less involved with those politics, and are still well-traveled. Prices probably about the same.

I agree that the overall affect on travelling is currently minimal. Strikes certainly can cause delays, Central Athens may not be the most pleasant place to visit, but for most of the tourist areas, life goes on, though now Greece is off season. Austerity measures could affect services and things like hours at sites and museums or reduced transit schedules on govt run lines. As for how visitors are treated, I suspect nothing has changed, I did hear some chatter about attitudes towards Germany/Germans in Greece, but no direct reports of acts towards German tourists. Also agree that demand will likely dictate prices more than political strife.

thanks all....it all sounds reasonable, about what i was expecting. i wasn't trying to shout..just deliniating one question from the other. c ya

It makes it harder to read. You could always use bold or underline if you wish to emphasize parts of a question. I often don't reply to questions that use lots of capitalization or have a lack of punctuation.

Twenty percents of the GDP of Greece and Italy are come from tourist industry. If you are going to visit their countries now. I am sure that they will be very appreciated. Just stay away of the strike and you will be fine.
I went to San Diego the week after the 911. No air flight for that week. All hotels are empty. The hotel employees treated me like a VIP.

I went to Greece (Athens, Santorini, Crete) in May 2011. The people really appreciated having tourists stay inspite of all the upheaval in Athens & were very warm and helpful. Please note, Athens is a huge city and the demonstrations are centered at the Parliment building.
EDIT Remarks: The Greek Islands were not affected at all by what is going on in Athens. In our case we only had an 8 hr layover in Athens connecting to Santorini, so we hired a guide to pick us up at the airport(stowed our luggage in his car trunk), show us around Athens, and drop us off at the airport to catch our connecting flight. We planned it this way just in case of transportation strikes that might stop metro and buses in Athens. There were 4 of us, so this was a really good way to go.

"Twenty percents of the GDP of Greece and Italy are come from tourist industry." Source? I can perhaps believe that for Greece, but for Italy? That sounds a little high.