PHOTO: Greece has some of the most important historical sites in the history of Western Civilization. (Courtesy of Greek National Tourism Organization)
Once again, negative publicity about political events is threatening to take down another country's tourism industry, this time Greece.
The chaos over the euro has crippled Greece's financial system and brought the European Union to a standoff over the future of the euro and the financial integrity of the European Union itself.
The U.S. Tour Operators Association released a statement on the subject declaring that its member tour operators are taking a "wait and see" approach to how the currency problems of the European Union will resolve, but most are expecting tourism to continue "as usual."
"Our active tour operator members have told us that they don't anticipate any major impact on their tour and travel business to Greece," said USTOA's president and CEO, Terry Dale. "They've heard from their ground operators and suppliers in Greece that everything is calm and it's truly business as usual."
The association reported that operators are voicing some concerns over "potential short-term problems" with access to cash via ATMs. Operators are telling clients to bring euros with them in case there are problems with ATMs.
In addition the USTOA statement addressed the possibility of Greece withdrawing from the euro zone and said that if that happened, there would be adjustments in pricing, but they would be favorable to Americans.
Tourism accounts for about 16 percent of Greece's economy. The country has some of the most important historical sites in the history of Western Civilization. If current banking and currency problems attack the tourism industry, it could make a bad situation unnecessarily worse.
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