Planning a trip to Greece in May, but haven't pulled the trigger yet. My wife has been concerned about the various strikes they've been having in response to the government's belt-tightening moves. (Long overdue belt tightening, I might add.)

I haven't been sharing her concern, but this week strikes, which shut down all flights and a lot of local transportation, got my attention. I know there is no way to predict what the situation will be like in May, but wondering what thoughts people might have. We might be better off doing Italy or Turkey on this trip instead...

If you are able to be flexible, I would stick with Greece as option A. If you are fortunate enough travel during a period with no strikes, you will have whatever resort you stay at treating you like royalty. Because very few tourists will be heading there at this time.

But only do this if you have flexible tickets and a backup booking in Turkey, Cypress or whatever. Because no one knows too far in advance when these strikes will hit.

Unless Germany bails them out, which seems pretty unlikely, government employees in Greece are going to be some very upset people for quite a while.

I don't claim to be an expert, but i usually visit Greece regularly during the tourist season. My take on this is that while there usually can be (violent) demonstrations in Athens during the winter, these things die out as soon as the spring comes. I have not yet seen any tendency for political unrest during the high tourist season in summer. The greeks aren't stupid, they know the importance of the tourist industry and they don't want to scare people off.
My impression is that the situation will have to deteriorate quite a bit before we will see larger manifestations during the tourist season.
And as for strikes, they can hit anytime, it doesn't have to be political reasons. One-day mass transit strikes have been semi-regular occurrences for many years.
I would still keep Greece as plan A, but would try to keep the travel plans flexible in the (imo) unlikely event that the situation doesn't improve.

Not always. I once arrived at ATH in mid-June only to be confronted with a sudden nationwide passenger ferry strike! (It only lasted a couple of days until the government declared a national emergency, giving it the authority to order the strikers back to work.)

A few years ago I read in a Greek newspaper while I was there that the kamakia were threatening to go on strike. I think this was a joke, but I suppose it could have been real ...

Posting this from my hotel in Athens. My third day here and I have seen nary a sign of social unrest. I think the government workers are planning to strike today but since I don't need to visit the Ministry of Agriculture....(shrugs).

The Greek tourism minister addressed this at a tourism summit last week.....

"Minister sees no problem for tourism as another general strike hits Athens.


Greek culture and tourism minister Angela Gerekou has downplayed a general strike which hit Athens today.

Speaking today at ITB in Berlin, she said that strikes happen somewhere in Europe every day.

Today's strike in Greece was 'only one day' so she saw no damage to the all important travel industry in the country.

In fact her main target was to "remind everyone that tourism in Greece was not affected but the much publicised economic and labour difficulties but, on the contrary, these problems have allowed Greece to become more attractive to the visitor."

Prices in Greece have been falling for some time whilst quality has been rising so the visitor has benefitted, she said.

Depite this, arrival figures released by the minister today show a drop in hotel arrivals for foreign visitors of some 5% whilst bed nights have dropped by around 9% up to the end of the 2009 summer season.

"We are not just a country full of problems and nothing else," said the minister as she announced a new campaign based on the Greek greeting 'kalimera' which represented not just a welcome to a friend but, a new world, a new begining fror Greek tourism.

Depite the economic problems she said that there would be continuing investment in infrastructure with 20 new marinas to be built, along with a new congress centre for Athens and continuing public and private investment in hotels.

In highlighting the new Acropolis Museum and this year's Golden Marathon event, the minister said that these demonstrated a good tourim investment policy.

Looking to the future, she wanted everyone to know that all investment in Greek tourism had to be environmnetally sensitive.

Tourism has a great future in Greece said Gerekou but it is an ecologically sound and a green future."

http://www.travelmole.com/stories/1141339.php

Well, I guess I'm not surprised that the Minister of Tourism said there will be no impact on the tourism industry in Greece! Still I appreciate the good points that have been made here.

Usually when a country is undergoing an economic crisis, it's somewhat beneficial as a foreign traveller since it depresses their currency. But since Greece is on the Euro, the impact isn't as great. (Although it seems to have contributed somewhat to the Euro's recent softening...

Not much change to the Euro, however hotels could drop prices a bit since tourists are afraid to book a trip due to strikes. Which is why the Tourism minister felt he had to make a statement.

However I think the real benefit is when you stay at a nearly empty luxury hotel, you get excellent service. Ditto for restaurants.

Unless you are unlucky and are caught, physically in the middle of a strike/protest that turns violent, local strikes rarely tourists. Often, they also don't affect all the locals. In the U.S most protests and strikes are peaceful. MAsses yelling and screaming scares Americans as they are not used to it. There have not been violent protests in the U.S. since the end of Vietnam war.

In some countries, protesters go on a rampage, setting shops, buses and cars ablaze. Typically, strikes target the Government and its operations, such as offices, public transport, or airlines. I doubt you will see protesters congregating at places frequented only by tourists. If you stay away from areas where an active demonstration is going on, you have no cause to be worried.

Some of those demonstrations do look scary. I saw one where striking students stopped a city bus, asked every one to get off, toppled the bus and set it ablaze. I saw a mob of students pushing on the bus rocking it back and forth until it toppled.

Of course. Tourism is their bread and butter. It's their largest industry. Tourist traffic WILL drop even without the strikes the world, Europe and the U.S., battle fear of another recession which could mean lower hotel prices.

We were "lucky" to enjoy a one day taxi strike followed two days later a public transportation strike in Athens two weeks ago. Nothing dramatic, but not nice. Barely escaped an airport strike (left 2 days before it was due to begin) The hotel also gave notice that some of their staff are going on strike.

I didn't really liked the insecurity of what's working tomorrow and what's not. In case there's a general strike, you're stuck.

We're plannning to fly to Mykonos from Cologne on 9th August for a week (no choice of dates unfortunately).

We have reserved the hotel direct (so can get a refund) but haven't booked flights since the options are to fly via DUS-JMK on Aegean via Athens or to fly back to London, stay overnight and then fly direct EasyJet LGW-JMK return.

Given that the problems in Greece seem to affect Athens airport but not the regional airports, which would you do?

I would do my best to avoid ATH for sure. Doesn't LH still fly to HER? You could get to Mykonos from there, right?

The only strikes that have affected air travel have hit all Greek airports, because the Air Traffic Controllers came out. There is one ATC centre in Athens that covers the whole country. ATH has had more problems with ground transportation than the regional airports, but if you're only changing flights that won't be a problem.
Some of the sites that show flight movements don't get an update from the Greek regional airports, so it looks as if things are normal when in fact nothing is moving. Try looking for the flight at the other end of its journey and you'll see cancellations or delays until the strike is over.

Have family traveling in Greece, and wondered whether EU compensation kicks in if flights are cancelled as part of the strikes? This would help offset the NR tickets if they need to take a ferry instead.