Greece’s Tourism Woes Continue As Tour Operators Slash Prices

Amid speculation about a Greek euro exit and fears of ensuing social unrest, tourism officials worry that Greece could have a terrible summer season this year.

A repeat election on June 17 will likely determine whether Greece retains the common currency or returns to the drachma. The gloomy forecast has travel agents across the world offering discounted fares to try and convince travelers to visit the sun-soaked Greek Isles and historic monuments.

Agents in the UK and Germany, in particular, have offered steep discounts to help kick-start slumping demand as the economic crisis hits travel spending across Europe. Residents of the two nations account for a large percentage of Greece's visitors, but reports of anti-German sentiment and the fear of being stranded amid protests has left several would-be visitors leery. Many of the 2.2 million Germans who holidayed in Greece last year appear to be headed for other destinations this year such as Spain or Turkey.

London-based Olympic Holidays, a major seller of Greek package holidays in the UK, reduced its rates by up to 25 percent for peak season travel. Meanwhile, online hotel prices in Greece show an 8 percent decline this month compared with June 2011, according to Trivago.gr, with rates in Athens down by 22 percent over last year. Overall hotel rates in Greece average 100 euros for a twin room, considerably lower than most other European nations.

"The immediate result is the devaluation of our country in the international tourism market," the head of the Hellenic Association of Tourism and Travel Agencies, Giorgos Telonis, told Athens-based ekathimerini.com. "We are all feeling the impact on the tourism industry and the Greek economy and society."

Rick Steves, the popular European guidebook writer and television host, said tours in the country have been "as smooth and fun as ever -- virtually unaffected by the local political and economic events."

Read more

At a Crossroads of Continents, Ancient Turkish Port City is Modern Logistics Hub

The Aegean Free Zone, located at the port city of Izmir on Turkey’s Aegean coast, takes advantage of Izmir’s desirable maritime hub and a favorable business environment.  Known as ESBAS, the Turkish acronym for Ege Serbest Bölge, the Aegean Free Zone Corporation has been an engine for economic development.

An important Mediterranean port for centuries, Izmir is also a modern-day commercial center for Turkey and the region.“Turkey’s economy is a success story, especially in Izmir,” said Ertugrul Isiksoy, ESBAS director of marketing.  The free zone’s location is in the center of a vibrant market, he says.  “Within a three hour flight radius of Izmir, there are 1.5 billion people with $25K or more purchasing power.”

Officially known as the Aegean Free Zone Development and Operating Company, ESBAS is located near the port of Izmir, which along with several other nearby ports, are growing in containerized traffic, and is just five minutes from the international airport

There are 19 free zones in Turkey, which, like ESBAS, were established to create jobs.  ESBAS was the first free zone run privately, and had a mandate to bring in high-tech employers to take advantage of the well-educated and qualified work force in the Izmir area. “There is no difficulty finding skilled labor,” said Isiksoy.

With a total population of nearly four million people, Izmir is Turkey’s third largest city after Istanbul and the capital city of Ankara. The basic advantage is the human resources,” he says.  “We have eight universities nearby, and can offer high-quality workers at competitive prices compared with the rest of Europe.

“Hugo Boss is our largest company in terms of employment, with 3,500 workers, and land, with 122,000 square meters,” Isiksoy says.  “Hugo Boss started their plant at ESBAS with 24 German engineers.  Now there’s just one.  The rest are from the domestic market.”

Murat Ozgurtas, marketing manager at ESBAS, said the free zone is near capacity.  “When the new investments start operating in the Aegean Free Zone, the employment will have reached over 21,000 people, and US$5,5billion in trade.”

ESBAS

To qualify as a free zone, the majority of goods processed or produced must be exported outside of Turkey.  For trading, companies can maintain commodities and large inventories here for unlimited time without paying either customs duties or levies.  Electronic companies can maintain stocks of components for just-in-time delivery to customers.

And the free zone offers two important tax breaks. Manufacturing companies get 100% exemption from corporate tax, and if a manufacturing company exports 85% or more of its production, the company’s employee are exempt from income tax.

The raw materials for food processing and packaging, as well as textiles, can easily be obtained locally, which buoys the region’s economy.  The ESBAS tenants have the opportunity to buy Turkish products at export prices without Value Added Tax (VAT).Almost all the lots on the 550-acre industrial park are built upon or reserved for construction.  19,500 people work there, with many plants operating in three shifts.

International tenants include Eldor Electronics from Italy, Stean AB from Sweden, German apparel maker Hugo Boss and Delphi Automotive from the U.S.   Some tenants are Turkish companies that locate within the free zone to import materials from outside the zone and then export finished products abroad, while enjoying the tax advantages.Manufacturing companies can obtain 45-year operating licenses, while trading companies are able to procure 15-year operating licenses.

ESBAS embraces the ‘build, operate and transfer’ business model.  In addition, there are many services for tenants.  ESBAS can provide security, water, power, stock management, processing services, trash, and an industrial kitchen that serves 18,000 (and delivers) meals a day.  There are five banks located within the zone.  There is a world-class child care facility, medical and dental clinics, a concert and sports hall, and a nursery to support the ornamental plants and trees for the well landscaped grounds.

Read more

Tourism for Tomorrow winners unveiled

SINGAPORE, April 18 — The Norwegian town of Røros has been handed a prestigious sustainable tourism award by the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The town, a former mining centre, was recognised April 17 by the WTTC’s Tourism for Tomorrow Awards, one of the most high-profile events in responsible travel.

The judges, an international team of travellers, entrepreneurs, environmentalists and academics, concluded that Røros’s tourism efforts have been monumental in reversing the area’s environmental degradation, awarding it the ‘Destination Stewardship’ gong.

The Conservation award, which requires winners to have made a direct contribution to the preservation of nature, wildlife and biodoversity, was given to Inkaterra in Peru, a biodiversity research company which doubles as a luxury travel experience.

Guests at Inkaterra’s five hotels are promised a carbon-neutral stay, along with the knowledge that their vacation is helping the group to work with local people on projects designed to underline the importance of the fragile habitats in the Andes and Amazon.

The Community Benefit award went to the Saunders Hotel Group, a chain in the US which supports local charity and non-profit groups with financial backing, volunteer time and other in-kind help.

The Global Tourism Business Award went to luxury chain Banyan Tree, which beat US-based adventure holiday specialist REI Adventures and South Africa-based conservation tourism firm Wilderness Group.

The hotel chain was praised for its sustainability monitoring across its businesses, as well as for being one of the first global hospitality companies in the world to ban the sale of shark’s fin in all of their hotels, an example only just beginning to be matched by competitors.

Read more

Travels into Greene-land

As a guide to far-flung places," the blurb on the book's front cover proclaims confidently, "Pico Iyer can hardly be surpassed."

The travel writer's latest volume however goes on a journey into a little more outre territory - his very own 'Greeneland', a place where obsession with Graham Greene mixes with an examination of the uncanny, if sometimes affected, links between Iyer's life and that of the celebrated English author. Both Greene and Iyer went to strict Empire-building British boarding schools, both were afraid of dentists, both were overshadowed by their fathers, both saw their houses burn down. But Iyer's lifelong fascination with Greene, chronicled across this book's 238 pages, goes beyond matching up coincidental quirks.

"I never wanted to seek out Greene's manuscripts or letters in research libraries; I made no conscious effort to track down those people who'd known him," Iyer writes. "He lived vividly enough inside me already, in some more shadowy place."

The Man Within My Head is in parts a biography (of Greene, the author), a memoir and literary criticism (covering the span of Greene's work), all sewn together by Iyer's patented and always insightful travel writing. The travel portions - like Greene's characters, Iyer spends time in destinations as desolate as Bolivia and Bhutan - somehow manage to combine the book's disparate genres into an engaging package that's much harder to put a label on.

Never having met the man, Iyer decides to take Greene on as an adopted parent. He is constantly haunted by the presence of the Englishman, both in his 'head' and in his writing. Rather than delving into the political or religious themes of Greene's work, not to mention the rumours that he lived a double life as a spy, Iyer decides instead to look at something more fundamental: questions of morality and innocence.

Greene's most famous work, The Quiet American, is to Iyer an "anguished and unending" internal debate between youth and adulthood; his debut novel, The Man Within (which Iyer's own title pays tribute to), is the story of a boy who is violently torn between "the romantic in him and the would- be cynic".

Your conscience, in Greene's work, is the real source of grief, not your evil. "The world of Greene is a world of greys," Iyer writes. "It is not that good and bad do not exist, but that they are so improbably mixed, in constant shifting proportions, that we cannot begin to tell friend from foe or right from wrong."

What seems like a simple parsing of literary themes, however, quickly becomes a way to understand the man himself. Iyer tells us how Greene fought tenaciously to stop a journalist from publishing a presumptuous book titled (in French) My Friend, Graham Greene , but then inexplicably sent the man's son through an expensive private school and then paid his way through studies in Oxford.

After unhappy attempts to appreciate Greene through his discovered love letters or his travel writing, Iyer decides the man is only at home and honest in his fiction. "And the reason I love him and he moved me so much was that he had the gift of seeming at last to set aside his evasions and false selves as soon as he began writing in another voice," Iyer writes.

Taking moral cues from an adoptive parent, however, forces Iyer to examine the relationship with his own father - celebrated Gandhi scholar and theosophist Raghavan Iyer, who was always too bright, too real and occasionally too spiritual (Pico chafes at his palmistry). Greene, on the other hand, seems to offer something more subtle.

But while attempting to discover the world through Greene's morality, the two father figures start to get muddled up. Greene's private correspondence turns out to be disappointing, but one of Raghavan Iyer's old letters to a friend ends up revealing a side his son never got to see. A chance meeting with an old student of his father's reveals that the two of them also shared coincidental quirks - both introduced the same obscure book to their classes, both loved the same unsung Yeats poem - even if they never discussed it.

Read more

Take a cruise holiday around the globe

Imagine experiencing the wonders of the world without ever setting foot on a plane. When it comes to a complete travel experience, little compares to a circumnavigation of the globe. And sailing the seven seas on an elegant ship brings back all the romance and excitement of the explorers of yesteryear. P&O Cruises makes it possible to do this in supreme style, on board sophisticated Aurora. It’s an incredible journey, beginning in January 2013, which takes in a kaleidoscope of famous cities, beautiful landscapes and man-made wonders.

This 105-night world cruise passes through two of the greatest feats of maritime engineering – the Suez and Panama canals — and calls at 40 ports, including leisurely overnight stops at Hong Kong, Dubai and San Francisco.

After Aurora sails from Southampton, its first stop is Ponta Delgada in the volcanic Azores. The adventure continues with a transatlantic crossing to the sun-soaked Caribbean islands of Barbados, St Lucia and Curaçao and a gentle introduction to the joys of life at sea.

Aurora is a sophisticated ship with three pools, a gorgeous spa, a bistro created by Marco Pierre White and plenty of lounges in which to while away the evening. You can also make the most of the balmy Caribbean nights by eating at the al fresco grill.

While your days at sea pass in a relaxed haze, the excursions offered at each destination are an exciting cocktail of colourful cultures, iconic architecture, unforgettable scenery and rewarding activities.

Aurora sails through the world-famous Panama Canal to Mexico’s eco-tourism hub Huatulco, before calling at the party town of Acapulco. Then, clam chowder replaces beach cocktails as the ship reaches the west coast of the USA for an overnight stay at San Francisco. After sailing beneath the Golden Gate Bridge, you’ll be ready to visit Alcatraz and ride the photogenic cable cars.

You only have to unpack once, so it’s easy enough to pull out your beachwear again for Honolulu and Hilo, the two exciting stops in verdant Hawaii.

South Pacific idylls

At the picture-perfect French Polynesian islands of Bora Bora and Tahiti, you could choose to float in a blue lagoon, explore the volcanic atolls or learn more about the fascinating culture of these South Pacific islands.

Just over a month into your adventure, you’ll reach New Zealand in time for its summer. There’s the “City of Sails”, Auckland, the art deco delight of Napier and the cultural hotspot of Wellington to explore — along with some great wine and truly unforgettable scenery.

Next on this epic cruise is Australia. Aurora spends a full day and evening in Sydney, where the marvellous Harbour Bridge and Opera House are must-sees. Vibrant Brisbane and Cairns — a gateway to the stunning Great Barrier Reef — complete the antipodean sector of the cruise before it’s time to head towards Asia, via the exotic nation of Papua New Guinea.

The itinerary takes in some of the most glorious sights across the great continent. Japan is a special place, from the neon streets of Osaka to the serene temples of Kyoto and poignant city of Nagasaki. Then Aurora sails to China, with excursions to the Great Wall, Beijing’s elegant Summer Palace and the immense Tiananmen Square.

A full day and evening in the “Pearl of the Orient” Shanghai follows, checking out the tea gardens and ornate temples, before an overnight stay in the buzzing metropolis of Hong Kong.

There’s plenty of fun in the Far East at the Vietnamese beach destination of Nha Trang. Also on the list are a visit to Thailand’s popular island, Ko Samui; the chance to explore Ho Chi Minh City; the vivid delights of Bangkok and the soaring towers of Singapore – an unmissable glimpse of the Asia of the future.

Read more