Greek Revival: The Return of Grecian Tourism

PHOTO: Like the Parthenon itself, Greece is under repair.

In 1810, Financier Nathan Rothschild famously said, "Buy on the cannons and sell on the trumpets." Meaning that the tough times are the opportune times and the good times are often the set up for a fall.

And so in Athens, wracked with unemployment, the cranes are busy building a new opera house by Renzo Piano and a national library center near the capital's coast. All this as the cannons sounded loudly over a vortex of economic collapse and civil unrest.

Then late last year, the positive reports began coming in, the Greek economic worm had turned and the long slow crawl toward better times had begun. As Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaris warned last year that it would take at least six years for a full recovery, Greek tourism began to surge. By October, Greece had already received 12 million 2013 visitors. Through August, tourism receipts were up 13.7 percent and the early bookings this year are up more than 10 percent.

PHOTO: Antonis Samaras, Greece's prime minister, speaks during an interview in Athens, Greece, on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. Greek government bonds have been a more rewarding investment during the tenure of Samaras than any technology stock in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index. (Photo by Kostas Tsironis/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

This week several tour operators told TravelPulse's David Cogswell that Americans were headed to Greece and Turkey in large numbers even as STR Global released a report showing that Athenian hotels had enjoyed a rebound in 2013. The situation, said STR Global's Managing Director Elizabeth Winkle, "caused a significant impact on the hotel industry in Athens as demand declined for the city.

"However, the industry's performance has been on an upward trend for nearly a year now, and we expect to see this trend continue. Positive news has emerged surrounding the economic situation and outlook in Greece. If this can be maintained, leisure tourism is expected to recover further because of the attractiveness of Athens as a destination."

It's hard to believe. It was only recently that tourists had been increasingly by-passing Athens altogether and flying directly into the islands from Europe or just jumping on ships in Piraeus due to the images of rioting in democracy's home town. According to Stefan Merkenhof, managing consultant of GBR Consulting, between 2010 and 2013 the Greek Crisis cost Greek hotels overall €2.5 billion and Athenian hotels in particular €820 million.

"However, Athens tourism has been recovering since May 2013 as the negative headlines on Greece disappeared and a positive outlook started emerging," said Merkenhof. "In the first two months of 2014, we have seen significant increases in international tourist arrivals at Athens as well as significant improvements in occupancy levels, albeit with stabilizing room rates. With the leisure market solidifying and the return of the conference and incentive market to Athens, of which there are already clear signs, the city seems to be set for a substantial recovery, in line with its rich offering for leisure and MICE travelers alike."

PHOTO: The popularity of Athens as a destination is making a slow but steady recovery. (Courtesy of Getty Images)

In 2013, the downturn bottomed out, primarily due to a recovery in leisure tourism. From April onwards, occupancy levels significantly improved compared to 2012, while room rates stabilized. Occupancy rose 7 percent in 2013 to 56.8 percent. As a result of the occupancy increases, revenue per available room (RevPAR) also improved significantly. RevPAR for the market increased 7.9 percent to €53.89.

To its credit, Greek tourism invested in putting a new face on Greek tourism for when the time came that the tourists returned. Greek Tourism Minister Olga Kefalogianni pushed for product that would attract higher yielding tourist. She cited the Costa Navarino, a year-round golf destination that opened in 2010 in Pylos as a prototype. Costa Navarino features two golf courses and two five-star Starwood-managed hotels, The Romanos and The Westin. The resort is a far cry from the classic B&B with taverna of yesteryear. In 2012, Amanresorts opened the 38-suite Amazone near Porto Heli on the Peloponnese peninsula.

The country's high-water mark was 2008, when 17 million visitors arrived in Greece. Marketing Greece is saying that 2013 exceeded 2008 by half a million visitors. The Greek government can already hear the sound of the trumpets as it predicts between 22 and 24 million arrivals by 2021. And Athens and Greece keep on building. Renzo Piano's cultural center is scheduled for completion in 2015. It will sit on 42 acres in Stavros Niarchos Park, which was also designed by Renzo Piano, to provide green and recreational spaces for the city. If you listen to cannons carefully they begin to sound like trumpets.

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