Tourism roars in Mediterranean

Wednesday, November 2, 2022

When Stelios Zompanakis leaves his central bank job in Greece to try his luck at boat racing, his family and loved ones had pleaded him to reconsider his choice.

After nine years, he spends summers on the “Ikigai,” a 53-foot yacht which he named after the concept of finding happiness through a life of meaning as per the Japanese culture.

On his yacht, weeklong holiday trips in and around some of the exotic-Greek islands like Sifnos, Milos, Serifos, Kythnos and others were booked up all through October.

Zompanakis said that the demand is like insane. He recently paced barefoot around the teak-paneled deck to regulate the sail and make sure the instrument panels are okay as the boat swung past the very old Temple of Poseidon, on a clifftop south of Athens.

The tourism in and around the Mediterranean has been growing like anything. Assisted by a powerful U.S. dollar and the pent-up demand of the Europeans to find a beach after years of travel restrictions related to COVID were removed, it’s been a great return from the slump caused by the pandemic than many thought, which led to long lines, flights got cancelled and luggage got lost this summer at many airports of Europe, though not in Greece.

Zompanakis said that people after the pandemic, most likely put some money in the sideways and decided they needed a vacation anyhow.

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