Greece tourism suffers from debts

Monday, June 18, 2018

Greece, like Ireland, missed out on the industrial revolution. However, unlike Ireland, it does not have multinationals and a financial services centre to generate wealth. With tourism as its only major industry, Greece cannot hope to become solvent before 2060 at the earliest, and probably never.

 
For Greece, tourism is not a growth area, except in the cruise ship business, which in contributes very little to local revenue. The infrastructure is limited. The mayor of Santorini, one of the world’s top island destinations, has asked for a halt to growth because the island, in his words, “has reached saturation point”. And while the refugee crisis continues, in the Aegean islands like Lesbos, tourism has reduced to nearly zero.

 
Greece has been in debt since the beginning. It has been controlled by the “Great Powers” which brought it into existence (Britain, France, Russia, Austro-Hungary) to destabilize Turkey and to create malleable client states in the eastern Mediterranean. The rising Greek debt brought it to virtual bankruptcy in 1843, and after a “real” bankruptcy in 1856, it was placed under international supervision. Today’s situation is merely history repeating itself.

 
Greece is hoping that in August it would have a “clean exit” from the current bailout.

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