Greece'sTourism Industry Suffering By Associated Press
August 6, 2002, 10:10 AM EDT ATHENS, Greece -- Greece's finance minister appealed to the tourism industryTuesday not to hike prices to compensate for a drop in summer visitors. Nikos Christodoulakis said the reduced number of tourists to some areas haveprompted merchants and others to increase prices. "Let's try to present quality and competition and to avoid price increasesin all tourism services," he said after a meeting with hotel and tourismrepresentatives. The industry has reported a drop in tourism, Greece's biggest industry, so farthis year. Some tour operators say Greece has lost its appeal because prices oftourism-related services are approaching those in other European countries.Also, there is a worry that tourists could bypass Greece in favor ofless-expensive seacoast resorts in places such as Turkey and Croatia. Prices on some Greek islands have a 100 percent markup over mainland costs.
