« Buy five games - pay what you want | European Parliament moving to Luxembourg? » |
Where would you rather be stuck, unable to travel back home by air, in Greece or - let's say - in Spain? Let me rephrase this: Would you prefer to drive home through France or Serbia*?
I usually get a bit nervous during the last days of any trip that relies on air travel, anyhow (a consequence of making it home twice on the last flight before the airline/tour operator went bust, I guess). The volcano just added another vulnerability to consider (and it's not like this is the only volcano they have in Iceland).
Now what does this mean for Greece? They're screwed. The tourism sector directly contributes about 18% to the Greek GDP and employs 20% of the workforce**. The disruptions right now are bad enough, but what could be even worse is the long-term effect of people booking their vacations in countries which are more accessible by road or rail.
BTW, the yield on Greek 10-year-bonds has just reached a new record high at almost 7.7%.
* Yes, you can take a ferry to Italy instead, unless everyone else wants to do this, too.
** Source, might be outdated but since we're talking about Greek statistics I don't see the point in trying to find more "accurate" figures.
This post has 29 feedbacks awaiting moderation...