ATHENS – Greece is expecting a record 30 million tourists this year and some of these summer nights it seems like they’re all on the Acropolis walkway, passing by the Acropolis Museum, passing under the Acropolis, walking through the nearby Plaka and just enjoying the magic that keeps them coming year after year, crisis or no economic crisis.
The usual lures are there: many of the world’s best beaches, islands that attract celebrities and the rich and famous for azure-blue clear waters and remote places of serenity as well as party-hardy places like Mykonos and Zakynthos, which is trying to live down a reputation for hooliganism and violence and drunken brawling, or the cliffs of Santorini, the world’s favorite island this year.
But they come for other reasons too: Adam Bridges, 29, from a town outside Boston, came with his wife and volunteers from the Salvation Army to help at a refugee camp before taking time to see the sights of Athens. “There are people we know who came here to work with refugees and we wanted to,” he told The National Herald.
Mary Proust, 60, a teacher from Perth, Australia, was outside the museum with her daughter, Elizabeth, 30, a public servant, passing through Greece as part of a cruise that also took them to Rhodes, Corfu, Crete and Mykonos.
Mary was on her third visit, having come 40 years earlier and then five years ago, and said she is drawn by the history unfolding before her. “We don’t have any,” she joked, noting Australia’s young life span.
The world owes so much to Greece, she said. “There’s so much of what we are and what we do that came from here. It’s been brilliant.”
She said they weren’t deterred by the country’s crisis nor images of protests and riots, even though their visit coincided with an anarchist rampage down Athens’ most popular shopping street, a demonstration against a court rejecting release of a woman linked to a terrorist group.
“Somehow Greece is trying to recover and Greeks have so much pride in where they come from, you can see it in them, they are so proud to be Greeks.”
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RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report
Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Bryan Ledgard License: CC-BY-SA
Source: thenationalherald.com
