Tourism in Chania is getting off to a slow start according to travel companies, hoteliers and restaurateurs, with most visitors to date making last-minute bookings for low-cost packages. The situation is affecting most of the nomos as well as other parts of Crete, and is due to the financial crisis in Scandinavia, Central and Northern Europe resulting from a steep increase in the cost of living, and particularly energy.
The tour operator Ving (former Thomas Cook Nordic) has been bringing exclusively Scandinavian visitors to the Chania area for many years. Haniotika Nea asked its local representative Andreas Augoustinakis about the current situation and the reasons for the low purchasing power of visitors.
“We have had many last-minute reservations because of the financial crisis in Europe. People are waiting until the last minute in order to get low-cost offers for their package holiday. They say that the tourists who came in May had small wallets, but when a household in Sweden is paying 750 to 800 euros a month for electricity one realises why they are in financial difficulty. July and August will be very good months, as every year. As a company we have done very well in the low months and the indications for September-October are good, but we do have this issue of last-minute reservations. We are doing a lot better in Heraklion, the last-minute tourists are far fewer,” Mr Augoustinakis said.
According to the tour operators, the problem is much greater with visitors from Germany, where there have been quite a few cancellations and some big hotels are already making offers for specific dates to cover their lost occupancy. Typically, in the Georgioupoli area, which is traditionally visited by German tourists, hoteliers told Haniotika Nea that occupancy in the month of May was one of the worst of all time. In addition the big hotels are keeping a lot of visitors inside (with restaurants and entertainment etc) which is adversely affecting the restaurant sector in the area.
According to Mr Augoustinakis, turnover is down 8 per cent on last year, and the company expects the same level to be continued for the whole season. “The basic reason is that the longer stays have been reduced, with most people booking for a week at the most. That’s what our statistics show. As a company we have good occupancy on our aircraft since we have a specific number of flights in order to ensure capacity for the hotels we have in our portfolio,” he told the newspaper.
Restaurants are being squeezed
In the old town and the harbour, the picture painted by hoteliers and restaurateurs is not a good one. “In May we were 20 per cent down in turnover compared with last year. There were plenty of people and movement but consumption was very small. The start of June has been just as bad,” Socrates Melissinos, who has an establishment on the Venetian Harbour told Haniotika Nea, while Haris Tsagarakis, also a restaurant owner, said: “In Chania we have tourists with very low purchasing power. They have an increased cost of living, something we are also experiencing to the extreme on all levels.” Another business owner mentioned a drop in turnover of the order of 50 per cent since the beginning of the year, which has already created many problems for a substantial number of businesses.
As regards the increased prices, and the focus which is put on the business owners, they told the paper that the cost of staff has risen substantially because of the difficulty of finding them. There has also been a general rise in the cost of raw materials, from potatoes and yogurt to vegetables, fruit and meat, with wholesale prices having risen between 10 and 100 per cent for some products.
(Haniotika Nea, 07-06-23)
Popular destinations have priced themselves out of the market
While Crete is experiencing a slow start, there are signs that the “big guns” of Greek tourism – Mykonos and Santorini – are paying the penalty for the extortionate prices which have become standard in recent years, according to a report on Mega TV quoted by ot.gr. Flights into the two islands for the year to date are showing a drop of around 20 per cent by comparison with 2019, at a time when many other Greek destinations are showing an increase. The reason, according to the Mega report, is that the islands’ hoteliers and restaurateurs have taken advantage of their reputation as luxury destinations to increase prices to the point where even well-heeled foreigners now consider them poor value for money, and Greeks are forsaking them for cheaper domestic and international destinations.
A quartet of superyachts
The disenchantment of wealthy visitors with Mykonos and Santorini may be working to the advantage of Chania. This is the time of year at which visiting yachts – both motor and sailing – start appearing at the old harbour. Most of them are of relatively modest size but occasionally a superyacht – loosely defined as a luxurious motor yacht over 24 metres in length – will be seen tied up at the quay opposite the KAM. However, on a visit this week we found three such yachts moored in a row, while a fourth came in and tied up as we watched.
The biggest, occupying the prime position against the quay which extends 50 metres out into the harbour from Akti Tompazi, was the 41.4-metre Halara (which translates in Greek as “Take it Easy”). An ultra-modern vessel launched in 2021, the Halara is registered in the Cayman Islands, and was built by Mangusta Overmarine at Italy’s “superyacht capital”, Viareggio. It had arrived in Chania after a 31/2 days journey from the Italian port of Olbia in Sardinia. Floating alongside, a sure sign of superyacht status, was the yacht’s 12-metre tender Halara III.
Next to the Halara was Bunty, also registered in the Cayman Islands. The 35.8-metre superyacht was built in 2009 at Fincantieri-La Spezia, not far from Viareggio on the east coast of Italy. At the time of writing (10-06-23) the Bunty had arrived in Agios Nikolaos after an 81/2 hour voyage from Chania.
A little further down the quay was the Lady Eliza, a 27-metre yacht registered in Malta and built in 2004. By Friday it had moved on from Chania leaving no trace of its passage or planned destination.
Built by Custom Line, a brand of the Italian Feretti company, the latest arrival, the Sokny, entered the old harbour around midday on Wednesday and moored next to the Bunty, watched by a crowd of interested bystanders. Delivered to its owner only a year ago, the Maltese-registered Sokny is an ultra luxurious 37-metre yacht with twin 1,380 hp diesel engines and a range of 3,000 nautical miles.
In the crowded marinas of the Dodecanese, where charter yachts are often seen in the hands of inexperienced crews, the tricky process of coming into port, performing a 90 degree turn and backing in to moor stern-on to the quay is often fraught with mishaps. The skipper may misjudge his approach to the narrow slot available and have to take a second go at it, while the owners of adjacent boats hang anxiously over the rail, ready to fend off the incomer and passing critical judgment on the crew’s seamanship. However, the Sokny’s approach was impeccable, the very young-looking British skipper communicating with his engineer via an earpiece from the after-deck as he backed the vessel in very slowly, accompanied by the whine of the electric thrusters used for positioning. With the ship held steady a couple of metres from the quayside, it was left to two female deckhands to throw the mooring ropes to two representatives of a shore services company who, once the ship was secured, were invited on board to tell the skipper and the owner what they had to offer.
The incident served to highlight the local infrastructure which visiting yachts may want to make use of, in terms of refuelling and provision of supplies, laundry, car hire, guidance to local restaurants and tourist spots – all services which can benefit the local business community. In the event the Sokny’s stay was a short one. By Friday afternoon it had departed Chania and was heading east along the coast, between Agia Pelagia and Heraklion. Only the Halara was left tied up at the quay.