MAYOR SAVES THE DAY

Tourism is the heavy, if not the only, industry of Greece. The ministry of tourism is trying hard to promote Greece as a tourist destination where apart from culture the sea and the sun, traditional Greek hospitality has been one of the strong points of tourist marketing for the country.

However, not everybody shares the same spirit and enthusiasm.  The business class of the country, who has invested in tourism, knows that treating their customers’ right is the key to their success. Satisfied clients are the key to returning business. In order to have a satisfactory level of success, the state apparatus has to function accordingly. But sadly bureaucracy has never been the strong point of the country.  In many cases their shortcomings or their mistakes reflect badly on the tourists and spoil the country’s image.

A typical case is that of a young Russian journalist who came to the island of Aegina for a sailing course organized by an internationally recognized sailing school. The second day of the course two port police officer s awaited her boat to dock. Without knowing why, she was escorted to the port police headquarters where she was interrogated by three officer s for over an hour without the presence of a lawyer or a translator. In the end, she was asked to sing a statement written in Greek which of course she refused to do and she was finally allowed to leave.

I met Ksenia at the office of the sailing school. She was unhappy about the whole experience and she strongly believed that such behavior could seriously damage the country’s image abroad. “I came to Greece to sail, not to relive the Soviet Union police experience” she said. As a member of the Tourist Committee of the island, I contacted the mayor of the island Mr. Sakis Sakkiotis who came to meet Ksenia . He heard her story and invited us to his office where he apologized on behalf of the Greek authorities. In that respect the mayor saved the day. Let’s hope situations like this do not happen again.

George Theodorakis