PLANK JUNE 5, 2012
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With the credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s estimating that there’s a one-in-three chance that Greece will abandon the euro sometime after its June 17 election, some people are already looking for a silver lining:
British tour operator Thomas Cook expects a surge in bookings to Greece if it leaves the euro zone as holidays to the Mediterranean nation would become better value for hard-pressed travellers.
"If Greece exits (the euro), for the tourism industry it could be very profitable," interim chief executive Sam Weihagen said after the company posted a steep first-half loss on Thursday.
I understand the general point here—currency devaluation will make Greece’s tourism sector more competitive internationally—but I’m pretty sure this is underestimating how harrowing the transition process will be. There’s sure to be political unrest as the value of ordinary Greeks’ life savings plummet precipitously and the country ceases being able to pay for the imports on which it currently relies. I’m guessing some tourists would be put off by the steady rise of a pro-Nazi party, or massive shortages of basic goods. Much less the prevailing mood of illness and depression:
According to health ministry statistics, a quarter of men and a third of women are depressed, double the European average for men, and nearly double for women. Calls to mental health hotlines also increased twofold in the first six months of 2011 compared with a year earlier.
“I don’t sleep anymore,” said ‘Petros’, who—clearly embarrassed by his situation–asked that his name be changed. An importer/exporter of furniture with several stores in Athens, Petros said that over the last months he had been obliged to fire many staff, a first for his family-run enterprise.
I’m sure Petros will feel better when he’s fetching beer for German vacationers for however many drachmas-per-hour. Actually, forget beer—I’m sure the tourists will want to try the new local delicacy, “sisa”:
The crisis has also encouraged the spread of a new street scourge called “sisa”. Made from methamphetamines, the drug is ten times cheaper than heroin, but its effects are worse: blackened skin, sores all over the body, ultra-violent behaviour.
“One user stabbed another of my patients,” recalled Emilios Katsoulakos, a psychiatrist. “There’s no substitute we can prescribe for sisa.”
The point is, once the euro is gone, this authentic Greek experience will be available at a deep discount. How can you afford not to buy a front-row seat to watch other people’s misery?
8 comments
Greece post-Euro will be a great place to visit, provided you aren't stabbed by a neo-Nazi covered in blackened sores.
- wildboy
June 5, 2012 at 10:19am
I was under the impression that unless there is a massive undertaking by Germany et al, and very quickly, the entire Euro system is going to unravel, and that there is at present no real hopes of any such plan materializing. All of which is to say that S&P giving a 1 in 3 chance that Greece will leave the Euro is about the same as saying if you jump off the side of a boat there's a 1 in 3 chance you'll get wet.
- Tristan
June 5, 2012 at 10:31am
Yeah, because what I want in a vacation is to intrude on local people angry that foreigners are taking advantage of their country's crisis to book a cheap getaway. Sort of spoils the atmosphere of paradise, doesn't it?
- ekeizer
June 5, 2012 at 12:20pm
" . . . provided you aren't stabbed by a neo-Nazi covered in blackened sores." Do I sense a new George Romero movie on the way . . . ?
- ironyroad
June 5, 2012 at 12:21pm
shame on petros, firing people. After all isn't he a job creator and don't job creators create jobs out of the goodness of their capitalist hearts (never mind that there are no customers, give him a tax break and he will create the jobs just because...) As to the sisa sored neo Nazis, I have blue eyes, I am sure they will view me as a demi-god and more likely worship me than stab me so it sounds like a good idea to go there.
- blackton
June 5, 2012 at 2:14pm
I intend on visiting the Greek isles dressed as a German tourist - short pants, black socks, sandals, polyester shirt, pfefferwurst tainted breath, and an oppressive need to bath in schadenfreude. Why having the opportunity to revel in a modern version of Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Greco-Roman empire (again!) is not to be missed. Rarely does such a chance at misery tourism rear it's head in the developed world. Walking the fair streets of Athens sipping ouzo from a gilded cup, I can throw coins at the children and snap photos of their desparation with my Leica M9 camera, then feeling a need to savor the rosemary-tinted air of the Aegean sea, I shall buy myself a nice summer villa along the coast where I can host parties für meine lieben Freunde. After I visit the new ruins of Athena I sail my Dehler yacht to the shores of Italia, where I can partake in the sins of the flesh of the desperate Venetian women left in the clutches of poverty after their men have moved back in with their mothers. Upon fulfilling my touristic desire to taste yet more of the exotic fruits of the Mediterranean I will drive my BMW 7 series to Rome and sit near Trevi fountain smoking my meershaum wondering how soon I can use my collection of vintage lire. Then I fly to Madrid where I will attend a conference on economic austerity measures that the PIIGS haven't fully embraced yet and I will preach to them about how their lack of drive, focus and German ingenuity has left them in the state they are. After giving them an earful, I will dine with a down on her luck woman from Granada, sip a nice Abariño and savor manchego before I ravish my date in the alley promising to rescue her from roving bands of unemployed Basques before catching a late flight back to Berlin. Ach...Deutsch sein ist gut!
- singlspeed
June 5, 2012 at 4:07pm
And perhaps, warum nicht? a side trip to Ireland to check out the new exclusive luxury of a 50 Euro pint of Guinness in a silver chalice, and maybe dropping in on Iggy Pop to ask whether his subscription to TNR is, in these times of austerity, an expense he can really justify.
- ironyroad
June 5, 2012 at 6:48pm
Not sure it is Irony but all are welcome, for sure.
- IggyPop
June 7, 2012 at 3:29pm