The Australian tourism market is of particular interest to Greece, thanks to the large number of expatriates. For this reason, the findings of a primary survey carried out by the competent services of the Ministry of Tourism on the travel preferences of expatriates in Australia are valuable.
As reported by the Office of Economic and Commercial Affairs in Sydney, due to the long distance and cost, Greek-Australian visitors remain in the country for a significant period of time, e.g. for a month or between six and eight weeks. At the same time, it is underlined that there are numerous Greek-Australians who are active in tourism and who show particular interest in the tourism development of Greece.
Australian travellers
As regards the Greek community in Australia, it is fragmented. There are different categories of travelers within it, depending mainly on age and the period in which they immigrated to the country. The main ones are the following:
The first main category is the first-generation immigrants who are now elderly and, if they have the financial means and their health allows it, visit their place of origin as regularly as they can, where they often have holiday homes or other property. In many cases, they spend a long period of time there (e.g. six weeks) and in some cases even about half the year, mainly during the spring and summer. It should be noted, however, that if a pensioner remains outside Australia for more than six months, their pension will be suspended.
The second category consists of the second generation, which does not maintain such close contact with Greece since it has no experiential connection with its place of origin. Their main motivation when visiting is to have a holiday and they choose popular tourist destinations, such as Athens, Mykonos, and Santorini, but also the Cyclades, the Ionian Islands, and Crete, and do not seem to want to explore less popular destinations. These visitors make the trip to Greece less frequently, e.g. every five years. However, even among third and fourth-generation immigrants, the desire to visit Greece is strong, despite their limited contact with the Greek language and culture.
The third category is the new immigrants, who migrated due to the economic crisis of recent years, whose bond with Greece is still strong and they return as often as they can to see their family (usually every two years mainly for financial reasons). As a first destination, they choose the destination that connects them to Greece in terms of family and they stay in their own homes and holiday homes. Therefore they do not behave as tourists when they are in Greece but as native Greeks.
However, the tourist behavior of the Greek-Australian and the Australian tourists in many cases does not show significant differences with the only exception being the fact that the Greek-Australians during the initial part of their trip will visit the destination that is connected to their family past.
How Rex Airlines Will Be Saved
The Office of Economic and Trade Affairs in Sydney also refers to the issue of the rescue of Rex Airlines. As it is noted, the Australian government will become the main creditor of the airline, through the purchase of 50 million Australian dollars of debt from PAG Asia Capital, in order to ensure the viability of the company.
This move comes six months after the company entered bankruptcy proceedings, having debts of more than 500 million Australian dollars.
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