At a press conference on Thursday 16th February, the Development minister Adonis Georgiadis announced changes for the pre-Easter period to the Household Basket, which aims to keep down prices at the main supermarkets for the consumer.
Among the new products are: lentils, beans and chickpeas, pressed ham and turkey, whole chicken and chicken parts, fresh beef, long-life/UHT and full-fat milk, chocolates and white cheese. Additional Lenten products are halva, Lenten salads (pastes) and at least two frozen seafood products for each supermarket chain. It was stressed that all the leaflets advertising the supermarket offers can be seen as of now on the site e-katanalotis.gov.gr.
Seafood is among the products which supermarkets are adding to the “Lenten Basket”. Photo: e-katanalotis.gov.gr
Mr Georgiadis also announced changes to the way in which product prices are displayed, giving the supermarkets a month to implement the changes. Labels are to be printed in bold type showing the details and the prices of the products. The aim, he said, is the protection of the consumer. Following expiry of the deadline, fines will be levied for non-compliance.
Supermarket fines
In the meantime, the ministry of Development and Investments has levied severe fines on several supermarkets following investigations by the ministry’s Market Monitoring Unit, for contraventions of the law on profiteering and for showing different prices on the shelf to those recorded on the cash register.
At the press conference, Mr Georgiadis announced the following fines: €319,900 to AB (the second largest which has been imposed on a supermarket), and several other fines of under €50,000, namely, €26,680 for Lidl, €21,387 for Galaxia and €9,380 for Kritikos, while recommendations were made to two other firms.
Dismissing the supermarket chains’ claims that the discrepancies were down to human error, the minister said that there were too many of them and the fines should set an example. The government was merely carrying out its duty to keep a check on the market, he said. “The fines do not mean that they are regularly breaking the law,” he continued, “but in more than a few cases there was excessive profit in a class of products, either within the basket, or more often, outside it.”
The minister called on the retail chains to be more careful since, as he said, “we are not disposed to let them off, we will protect the interests of the consumers. The laws are strict and are applied in other countries too, but food price inflation is consistently much lower in our country than the average, so the measures are working.” (Haniotika Nea 17-02-23)
The funeral took place on Saturday of Manousos Voloudakis, MP of Nea Dimokratia for Chania and a former minister, who was widely admired for his service to the municipality. Manousos Voloudakis died on Wednesday 8th February from lung cancer, leaving behind him three young children, Giorgos, Sifis and Daphne, and his wife Sevi Amantidou.
Many tributes have been paid to Chania MP Manousos Voloudakis, who died on Wednesday 8th February at the age of 57.Photo: Kyvernisi.com
On learning of his death, the city council adopted an official resolution which began as follows: “Manousos Voloudakis was a man with force of character, honesty and dignity, respected by his political friends and rivals alike. He espoused and fought for the needs of the Municipality of Chania, of the Nomos of Chania, and of his particular homeland, Sfakia, and for the interests of all Haniotes. Our heartfelt condolences to his family and relatives.”
Born in Athens in 1966, Manousos Voloudakis studied Economics at the University of Athens, and took a Masters in Political Economy at the University of Essex in the UK. He was first elected MP for Chania with ND in 2007, was reelected in the double elections of 2012 and again in July 2019. He served on six different committees in the current Parliament.
Political and social activities
He was appointed General Secretary for Trade at the ministry of Development in the period 2005-2006. In January 2010 he assumed the role of Secretary for New Technologies, Research and Innovation with Nea Dimokratia, resigning from the post in December 2011 to take place in the forthcoming parliamentary elections.
From June 2012 he was Deputy Minister for Administrative Reform and Digital Governance. From October 2015 to June 2019, he worked in the private sector as Managing Director of International Trade SA, part of the Viohalcos Group, based in Brussels, and in July 2019 he was again elected MP for Chania.
Tributes from friends and colleagues
Since his death dozens of public figures and institutions have paid tribute to Manousos Voloudakis.
The Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “Words are inadequate to describe my grief at the loss of Manousos Voloudakis. My good friend and colleague, but also my dear compatriot and faithful ally in Nea Dimokratia. Manousos left an imprint of quality throughout his career. As an MP, as an economist and as a native of Chania. Public life owes him a great deal, since as deputy minister for Administrative Reform he fought bravely against bureaucracy. The government and the party mourn such an untimely loss.”
The Foreign minister Nikos Dendias said: “Manousos Voloudakis was distinguished by his moral character and his consistency in the execution of his parliamentary duties, and his death is matter of grief for all of us.”
The former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said that everyone was deeply saddened by the loss of “a splendid young man, polite, cultured, educated, approachable, and a family head”.
The Regional Governor for Crete Stavros Arnautakis described him as a politician “with consistency and rectitude. An MP who was valued by the community of Chania, which he served at every step of his political careers. His death leaves an irreplaceable gap in Chania, in the party of Nea Dimokratia, in the Greek Parliament and of course among his colleagues and his family,” he said.
Expressing his condolences, the mayor of Kissamos Giorgos Mylonakis said: “Manousos was distinguished by his moral character, his dignity and his politeness, and he served the public sphere, always with democratic and productive positions, respecting the trust of his fellow citizens. He was an untiring fighter in life, a correct family head, an approachable man who was especially loved by all. The political life of our area is the poorer for his loss.” (Haniotika Nea)
The funeral
The funeral took place at the Metropolitan Cathedral of Chania on Saturday 11th February. The coffin was on display for three hours from 9.00 am to allow mourners to pay their respects, and the following funeral ceremony was presided over by Evgenios, Archbishop of Crete, accompanied by Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selino.
Watched by Evgenios Archbishop of Crete, the coffin of Manousos Voloudakis begins its journey from the Metropolitan Cathedral of Chania to the city’s main cemetery of St Luke. Photo: YouTube.
Among the mourners were the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the President of the Hellenic Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas, the Finance minister Christos Staikouras and many other national and local political figures. The ceremony included tributes by, among others, the Prime Minister, Chania MP Dora Bakogianni, the Regional Governor of Crete Stavros Arnautakis and the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis.
After the ceremony the coffin was taken in procession to the cemetery of St Luke in Anapfseos street, accompanied by “vrakoforoi” in traditional costume.
It is now a week since Türkiye and Syria were hit by two major earthquakes in succession which flattened large areas around the border between the two countries, killing over 30,000 people, injuring thousands more and leaving millions of people homeless.
In Syria aid has been slow in arriving, with humanitarian operations being hampered by the fact that the affected areas are in rebel-held territory, so that access must be through restricted crossing points on the Turkish-Syrian border. In Türkiye, however, tens of thousands thousands of aid workers, including teams from many different countries, have been combing through the ruins of buildings, extracting residents trapped in the wreckage, some alive, some dead – the latter now more common as the 72-hour window of probable survival in the conditions and the prevailing temperatures has long since passed.
Despite the recent tense relations between the two countries, Greece was quick to respond the situation. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis telephoned President Erdogan on the day of the earthquake to offer Greece’s commiseration and support – their first contact since the Turkish President had publicly broken off relations ten months previously. “I just spoke to the President. On behalf of the Greek people, I extended my deepest condolences for the devastating loss of life and reiterated our readiness to provide all further assistance necessary,” he announced on Twitter. Greece has sent 80 tons of medical and first aid equipment, and a team from Greece’s Emergency Services accompanied by sniffer dogs has spent the past week searching day and night for survivors.
On Sunday 12th February the Greek Foreign minister Nikos Dendias flew to Adana, one of 10 Turkish provinces affected by the earthquake, where he was met by his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. His arrival was the first visit by a European minister to Türkiye since the earthquake. The two ministers travelled to Hatay, where Greek rescuers were helping with search and rescue operations, and met rescuers from the Greek and other European teams.
Speaking at a press conference with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (right), Greek Foreign minister Nikos Dendias (far left) expressed his satisfaction with the work of the Greek and other European rescue teams (rh picture). The teams, he said, had saved a total of 205 people alive from the ruins. Hatay, Southern Türkiye, 12th February. Photo: YouTube
The two men had embraced warmly at the airport, renewing a friendship which had been established over many years of diplomatic relations, but had seemingly withered under the recent onslaught of anti-Greek rhetoric from President Erdogan and his aides. Speaking at a press conference with Mr Çavuşoğlu in Hatay, Nikos Dendias said that Greece would continue its support to Türkiye to overcome the difficult days ahead. Mr Çavuşoğlu said that it was important for the two countries to support each other in difficult days, adding that they should not “wait for another disaster to hit one country to restore their relations”, a sentiment echoed by the Greek minister.
“We met the Greek search and rescue team here, and they have worked nonstop since they arrived here. We witnessed how they and the entire Greek nation were overjoyed when a victim is rescued alive,” Mr Çavuşoğlu said. Harsh times prove the goodness of neighbours, he said, recalling the mutual aid between the two countries when both were hit by earthquakes in 1999. (Dailysabah.com)
Scientists look for answers
Less visibly, earthquake specialists have been analysing the circumstances of the earthquakes, searching for explanations of the scale of devastation they caused. Talking to the Anadolou Turkish news agency, Harold Tobin, Professor of Seismology and Geohazards at Washington University, noted that the two earthquakes had occurred in quick succession on two different fault lines. The combination was very unfortunate, he said, because the the first quake had caused major damage to buildings, and then the second tremor affected buildings already damaged by the first.
Professor Tobin underlined that earthquakes are caused by the motions of tectonic plates, with Türkiye’s landmass “squeezed” between the North Anatolian and the East Anatolian faults, with fractures between the plates where they come together. “So, what happens is the fault is stuck and held together by friction, just like when you try to push a heavy piece of furniture, you know, at first it resists, it doesn’t move. That builds up the strain in the Earth’s crust,” he said. “And then when the earthquake happens, it releases all of that in one minute or something like that.” Monday’s earthquakes were the result of accumulated strain from hundreds of years of plate tectonic motion as Africa moves northward and Arabia pushes towards the east, he said, causing the Anatolian plate to shift a total of about 3 metres.
Efthymios Lekkas, Professor of Geology and Natural Catastrophes at the University of Athens, accompanied the Greek Emergency Services team to the earthquake zone and was able to collect at first hand evidence of the how the tremors had progressed. Predicting that the final death toll would be over 50,000, he told APE-MPE that it was one of the biggest disasters ever, affecting 12 cities and an area the size of Greece.
There were five main factors affecting the severity of the earthquake’s effects, he said. The first and most important was the violence of the tremors themselves, but there were other contributing factors: “The second factor is the underlying terrain…. In this case it was very soft, which reinforced the seismic movement. “The third factor is that the antiseismic regulations there are inferior to ours. “The fourth was the building materials used. Building is of an inferior grade in the area generally. “The fifth factor is that their buildings may look fine from the outside, but they have certain architectural characteristics which are highly dangerous for the buildings. They were not symmetrical buildings and they had projections, so that the masonry was not connected to the frame.” (ERT News)
One factor which Professor Lekkas did not mention, and which has been widely commented on in the international media, is that while Türkiye has anti-seismic building regulations in place they are frequently ignored by developers, and defective buildings have regularly been legalised by the government to avoid their having to be demolished. Indeed some of the buildings which collapsed had been built within the last few years. Along with what has been criticised as the government’s slow response to the disaster, this will be a factor which could cause difficulties for President Erdogan and his AKP party in the upcoming national elections. It is reported that to date some 100 property developers have been arrested for their role in the catastrophe.
The Chania Carnival at Souda is coming back stronger than ever after an absence of two years due to the pandemic, according to an announcement by the Municipality of Chania, with the great carnival parade scheduled for Sunday 19th February 2023.
The official announcement was made at a press conference at Chania town hall attended by the deputy mayor for Culture Giannis Giannakakis, the deputy mayor responsible for Souda Michalis Tspoupakis, the Regional Councillor for Chania Giannis Manousakas, the president of the local community of Souda Dimitris Klothakis, the president of the Businessmen’s Association of Souda Marios Gelasakis, and the deputy chairman of the Cultural Association of Souda Lefteris Kokkogiannakis.
The Chania Carnival, which is once again being organised by the municipality of Chania, the KEPPEDICH-KAM and the Regional Authority of Crete in collaboration with Businessmen’s Association of Souda and the local Cultural Association, this year has a theme taken from Cretan mythology. Inspired by the history of the Souda area and in particular Aptera, it is being given the title “Sirens and Muses”, though interpreting the theme is not obligatory for participants.
The theme of this year’s Chania Carnival at Souda is “Sirens and Muses” – derived from local mythology around the name Aptera.
“Our source of inspiration is the mythology of the area of Aptera, where the Muses lost their wings and, becoming wingless, gave their name to our best-loved area in the community of Souda,” said the deputy mayor for Culture Giannis Giannakakis. [In Greek, the word ptera or ftera means wing or feather so aptera does indeed mean wingless.]
The opening ceremony of the Carnival was held on 8th February with the appearance of the Carnival King, followed by a concert with Giorgos Tsalakis. Throughout the carnival period there will be activities at the Mikis Theodorakis Theatre and the KAM (Megalo Arsenali), while the festival of Apokries will culminate with the grand parade in Souda on Sunday 19th February.
Mr Giannakakis announced that there will be activities and events throughout the Municipality of Chania as well as in the city centre, mainly aimed at children and families.
Deputy mayor Michalis Tsoupakis said that the emphasis will be on safety for all the participants: “Our aim is that the Carnival should be a safe one, that there should not be excessive consumption of alcohol, and we call on all Chania residents and visitors, young and old, to support us in having fun, having a good time, but also taking care.”
In conclusion, the president of the Businessmen’s Association of Souda Marios Gelasakis thanked the Carnival’s sponsors and organisers and announced that information and updates about the event can be found on the “Chania Carnival at Souda New” group on Facebook.
A Greek community has existed in Southern Italy since ancient times, beginning with the migration of traders and colonial settlements in the 8th century BC.
During the 8th and 7th centuries BC, owing to demographic crises caused by a variety of factors including war, famine and overcrowding as well as the need to find new commercial outlets, the Greeks began a large colonisation drive, including in Southern Italy. Greek colonies were established in places as far apart as the Black Sea and Marseilles.
The Romans called the area of Sicily and the extremity of the Italian mainland Magna Graecia because of the large numbers of Greeks living there. New waves of Greeks came to Magna Graecia from Greece and Asia Minor during the Early Middle Ages.
During the decline of the Byzantine Empire in the 13th and 14th centuries and mainly after the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, many Greeks settled in Italy. They included artists, writers, musicians, scientists, philosophers and theologians, and their presence is considered by modern scholars to have been crucial in the revival of Greek and Roman studies, arts and sciences, and subsequently in the development of Renaissance humanism.
Although most of the Greek inhabitants of Italy became entirely Latinised during the Middle Ages, migration routes between Southern Italy and the Greek mainland never entirely ceased to exist and pockets of Greek culture and language remained and survived there into modern times.
Today, there is an ethnic minority who live in the Southern Italian regions of Calabria and Apulia, especially the peninsula of Salento, who speak a distinctive dialect of Greek called Griko. They are believed to be remnants of the ancient and medieval Greek communities who have lived in the south of Italy for centuries. The dialect combines ancient Doric, Byzantine Greek, and Italian elements, and there is a rich oral tradition and Griko folklore, though now limited to only a few thousand people. (Wikipedia)
A celebration of the language and culture of Southern Italy
International Greek Language Day, observed on 9 February, aims to highlight the role that Greek has played in world culture, and to encourage Diaspora Greeks and all those interested in Hellenic culture to learn more about the Greek language.
In celebration of the event, the language and culture of the Greek-speaking communities in Southern Italy are to feature in an evening being held at the KAM in Chania on Saturday 11th February. Described as “a tribute to the Hellenism of Lower Italy and the Greek language”, the evening includes discourses by Daniele Makris, a Greek philologist from Sicily, and Foteini Kaimaki, philologist, author and researcher into the culture of Lower Italy.
Songs from the area will be performed by Mariella Vitorou, accompanied by G. Melabianakis on mandolin, M. Kanakakis on piano and accordeon and A. Kanakakis on guitar and woodwind. The evening will be presented by philologist and journalist Viky Kollia.
The event will conclude with the cutting of the vasilopita of the Greek Language Association, to mark the new year.
Organised by the Regional Unit of Chania, the Municipality of Chania and KEPPEDICH-KAM. To be held at 19:30, at the Centre for Mediterranean Architecture (KAM), 2nd floor. Admission free.
A memorial ceremony was held on Monday 7th February at the Tower of Voukolies, on the 126th anniversary of a historic battle which took place there in 1897. The gathering was organised by the Metropolitan See of Kissamos and Selino, the Municipality of Platanias, the community of Voukolies, the local primary school and the Ladies’ and Young Women’s Association of Voukolies “I Merimna”.
The event began with a memorial service, followed by greetings, speeches about the events of the time, laying of wreaths and the singing of a rizitiko by the Rizitiko Group of Kallithea in the Municipality of Platanias.
The mayor of Platanias Giannis Malandrakis addresses the gathering at the Tower of Voukolies, 7th February 2023. Photo: Municipality of Platanias/Facebook.
Explaining the historical context of the Battle of Voukolies, local primary school teacher Niki Tsamouri said: “The Cretans were thirsting for freedom. Freedom and release from the unbearable Turkish yoke, which had oppressed them for centuries. The Revolution was an irreversible process which was leading to union with the now free Greece. The much longed-for revolution began here, on exactly this spot, 126 years ago on the 7th February 1897.”
In his words of greeting the mayor of Platanias Giannis Malandrakis stressed the importance of the heroic battle, which he said “should remain a living example of memory and education”. Regional councillor for health, education and culture Sofia Malandraki-Krasoudaki also emphasised the battle’s significance and the need to preserve its historic memory.
A historic event
The modern reconstruction of the Tower of Voukolies, with wreaths laid at the commemorative event on 7th February. The ruins of the original cover a much larger area. Photo: Haniotika Nea
The tower of Voukolies is situated about 1 km south west of the town on the road to Palaiochora. It was blown up by the victorious Cretans after the battle and only a few ruins remain, along with a modern reconstruction of the tower. It was one of a network of fortifications built by the Ottoman authorities in an effort to retain control of the island following the Great Cretan Revolution of 1866-69 – the third and largest in a series of Cretan revolts between the end of the Greek War of Independence in 1830 and the establishment of an independent Cretan State in 1898.
The circumstances are described in an account on the blog site “The British in Crete, 1896 to 1913”, which also contains some interesting information about the international geopolitical manoeuvres which formed a backdrop to the Cretan struggles for independence:
“On 13/14th February 1897, a Greek force of some 1500 men, complete with artillery, under the command of Colonel Timothy Vassos landed at Kolymbari and proceeded to declare the union of Crete with Greece. By 17th February the force had moved inland and, having established their headquarters in Alikianos, a mixed detachment under the command of Major Konstantinidis and including an artillery platoon and an engineer platoon, was ordered to Voukolies to capture the tower: also with the force were many Cretans and the company of students under the command of Captain Em. Zimvrakakidon.”
The battle between the besiegers and the garrison of some 400 Turks lasted a couple of days, the Cretans initially wasting their ammunition, according to the British account, and having to wait for reinforcements of ammunition and artillery before they could complete the job. At one point the Turks attempted a break-out and a large number of them escaped. While Greek sources talk of 240 Turks being killed, a contemporary British account is more circumspect, mentioning 35 Turks killed and 15-30 Cretans.
In conclusion the account says that although of minor military significance, the engagement proved to the Cretans that the Greeks were present in sufficient numbers and sufficiently well armed to expel the Ottomans and so provided an important boost to local morale. Indeed, following the intervention of the Great Powers, an independent Cretan State was declared in December of the following year.
(Report of the memorial event, Haniotika Nea 08-02-23)
Although the number of smokers in Greece is diminishing, the country remains, with Bulgaria and Cyprus, among the three countries with the largest number of smokers in Europe. At the same time, despite the advances made in treatment, lung cancer remains one of the most fatal forms of cancer, with only 2 out of 10 people diagnosed with the disease surviving for more than 5 years. In order to meet this challenge, public healthcare is increasingly focussed on early diagnosis, as well as persuading people to abandon the habit.
A conference entitled “Preventing lung cancer, cutting out smoking – screening” was held by the Hellenic Thoracic Society (EPE) in the Mikis Theodorakis theatre in Chania on Saturday 4th February to mark World Cancer Day. The event was held in cooperation with the Municipality of Chania, the Pulmonary Clinic of the University of Crete and the Association of Pulmonologists of the Regional Unit of Chania.
Interviewed on Nea TV on 3rd February, pulmonologist Miltiades Markatos said that many people are dying of lung cancer in Crete. He noted that attendance at the anti-smoking clinics which he runs in Chania had shown a falling-off during the Covid period, but are now increasing satisfactorily. Photo: Nea TV
Announcing the conference, the mayor of Chania Panagiotis Simandirakis said: “On a day of great symbolic importance, World Cancer Day, scientists from all over Greece will engage in discussion and inform their colleagues about the importance of screening, and also of the new approaches to lung cancer prevention. We welcome the conducting of the conference in Chania, since lung cancer continues to be by far the major cause of fatality among cancers, a statistic which could be reduced by timely and accurate diagnosis by scientists and systematic public information.”
“A structured national prevention strategy is an important priority in the fight against lung cancer,” the EPE said in a statement to mark World Cancer Day. In its scientific work, the Society emphasises the critical importance of adopting screening using thoracic low-dose CT scans in conjunction with anti-smoking campaigns among the high-risk groups of the population.
The reduction of smoking in Greece and the establishment of screening are key aspects of such a national strategy, according to the EPE’s president, Stelios Loukidis, professor of Pulmonology at the Kapodistrian University of Athens, who stresses the importance of forward planning in lung cancer prevention.
“Lung cancer is a contemporary plague, 90 per cent associated with the habit of smoking,” he says. “Screening using thoracic low-dose CT scans (LDCT) and the simultaneous stopping of smoking constitute two tools which must be correctly planned and applied in the relevant population group to give hope and life. The EPE will shortly have ready an action plan relating to these two elements.”
“Scientific research shows that the use of thoracic LDCT in a screening programme really saves lives,” says the EPE’s general secretary Eleftherios Zervas, director of the National Heath Service’s 7th Pulmonary Clinic and Asthma Centre at the “Sotiria” General Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Athens. Mr Zervas notes that if lung cancer is diagnosed at an early stage, and before it spreads, there is a greater chance of successful treatment, adding: “The EPE is in the final stage of issuing guidelines for the timely diagnosis of lung cancer – in collaboration with the Radiological and Thoracic Surgery Societies – in order to establish a structured and scientifically-based national strategy for lung cancer screening, always in conjunction with programmes for stopping smoking.”
The need for us to breathe air which is free of carcinogenic chemical substances, but also of inhaled viruses and other microorganisms, may prove to be humanity’s most important concern in the coming decades, according to the EPE’s vice-president, Nikolaos Tzanakis, Professor of Pulmonology at the Medical School of the University of Crete.
“This need relates not only to smokers or the inhabitants of large cities with atmospheric pollution, but to all of us, whether we work in compromised professional environments or have increased intra-household pollution,” he says. “The effects of such exposures on health, even for non-smokers, will be noticeable. Thus everyone, and particularly those who work professionally indoors or in work environments burdened with volatile carcinogenic chemicals, should be subjected to specific programmes of screening and timely diagnosis of pulmonary diseases.”
Miltiades Markatos, president of the Chania Pulmonologists’ Association, explains that pulmonologists who work in Primary Healthcare establishments are the health professionals who have the most immediate contact with smokers or former smokers, whether with or without respiratory system symptoms.
“The pulmonologist has the training and the capacity to inform the smoker of the advantages of cutting out smoking and how this can significantly improve their life expectancy, and to enrol them in an anti-smoking clinic. The pulmonologist can also manage the stages of timely diagnosis and direct the patient accordingly,” he says.
(Hellenic Thoracic Society press release, Haniotika Nea)
The mayor of Apokoronas, Haralambos Koukianakis, has announced that the creation of a dive park in Apokoronas has been included in the Cretan Regional Authority’s development plan for 2021-2025 under the Priority Category “Promotion of facilities for alternative forms of tourism (health and wellness, city breaks, agrotourism, mountain tourism etc.)”.
According to the announcement, the action is to be funded by the National Development Programme and relates to the creation of a recreational dive park at Ombrogialos beach in the northern part of Almirou Bay, south of Cape Drapanos. The area is administratively part of the municipality of Vamos.
Ombrogialos beach on the Apokoronas peninsula is the setting for a new recreational dive park due to be completed by the end of next year.
Ombrogialos beach is rocky with steep inclines and deep water, exposed to the waves from the north east. There is little tourist activity in the area and a lack of basic infrastructure. The rudimentary harbour facilities, which are close to the proposed dive park, consist of a jetty and a slipway for launching boats. They are used as a base by divers heading for the Elephant Cave a few kilometres to the north.
The dive park will be situated between the depths of 8 and 25 metres, where the bottom slopes gently and is composed of sandy stretches with rocky outcrops and seagrass meadows.
For the implementation and smooth functioning of the dive park, a number of individual works and interventions will be needed to create an organised facility which is fit for purpose. The aim is to create a strong centre of attraction in the fast developing sector of sea diving tourism. Such places also tend to add value by creating homes for shoals of fish, thus increasing the area’s attraction.
The works required include the addition and removal of material in places on the sea bed, and the installation of the elements indispensable for the creation and functioning of a recreational dive park, namely accessible undersea features (artificial reefs and sunken ships), direction signs and lighting, and mooring points for visitors’ boats.
In making the announcement, the mayor of Apokoronas expressed his satisfaction with the development, since numerous bureaucratic obstacles had had to be overcome in order to bring the “labyrinthine” process to a conclusion. It had required 46 approvals and decisions by 8 ministers, and two joint ministerial decisions before its final publication in the Government Gazette (FEK). The effort had begun in the autumn of 2014 and its implementation will bring added value to the municipality’s tourist product, he said. Execution of the project is scheduled to begin on 20th March 2023 and to be completed by 31st December 2024.
On 30th January the energy minister Kostas Skrekas announced new energy subsidies for the month of February, which will be at a lower level than previously since the prices from electricity suppliers have fallen by 65 per cent compared with last month.
“Today, we are in a period of drastic de-escalation of international prices for natural gas as a result of the institution of a European cap on gas prices,” he said. He pointed out that it was the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis who had first proposed in March 2022 that the EU should impose a realistic cap on gas prices, to restrict profiteering in the international markets. Reviewing the government’s efforts to support Greek consumers to date, Mr Skrekas said that so far the government has spent a total of €8.2 billion supporting consumers’ electricity bills. He then announced the following figures for February.
Subsidies for domestic consumers
For all supplies to primary and non-primary residences and regardless of income, consumers of up to 500 KWh per month will receive a subsidy of €40 per Megawatt/hour (MWh), or 4 cents per KWh. Ninety per cent of Greek households fall into this category.
Consumers of more than 500 KWh will receive the same subsidy so long as they have reduced their average daily consumption by 15 per cent by comparison with the same period last year.
Households enrolled in the Social Residential Tariff will receive a subsidy of €88 per MWh.
Subsidies for commercial consumers
Commercial consumers with low- medium- and high-tension supplies will all receive a subsidy of €20 per MWh. For farmers the subsidy will be €40 per MWh.
The total amount of subsidy available to domestic, commercial and agricultural consumers for the month of February is €95 million.
It has been clarified that domestic consumers of over 500 KWh per month will still receive the subsidy on the first 500 KWh consumed, regardless of whether they have reduced their consumption.
There will be no subsidy for consumers of natural gas.
The Samaria National Park is an especially popular and world-famous tourist destination. As a protected area of special natural beauty, it attracts thousands of visitors during each tourist season, and visitor numbers are closely watched by the local tourist industry. Visitor traffic at the Samaria Park was the subject of a recent study by the Tourism Monitoring Unit of the Mediterranean Agronomic Institute of Chania (MAICH), in cooperation with the Technical University of Crete, the Chania Forestry Directorate and the management body of the Samaria National Park.
Research carried out over the years has shown that the Samaria National Park is a significant focus of attraction for visitors and contributes to the touristic and economic development of the wider area. The current phase of research was carried out in collaboration with the Cretan Regional Authority and is based on recent data collected during the 2022 tourist season. It aims to give an overall picture of visitor traffic at the Samaria National Park in the post-Covid period, with visitor profiles and measures of their satisfaction.
The Samaria Gorge attracts thousands of visitors every year and is an asset to the local economy. Photo: Haniotika Nea.
Visitor traffic at the Samaria National Park
The Samaria National Park is officially open from May to October. In the years up to 2019 it had witnessed a continually rising trend in visitor traffic. During the period of the pandemic there was a substantial falling-off of traffic because of the much-reduced opening period and also because of the climate, which affected tourism in the Nomos of Chania generally. The total number of visitors in 2020 was 56,287, the lowest since 1981, however in 2021 it increased to 94,985 and last year saw an explosive increase in the number of visitors, which at 169,593 was a record for the past 16 years.
Visitor profiles
The ratio of male to female visitors to the park, on a sampling basis, is almost 50-50. As regards their educational level, it appears that 6 out of 10 have completed further education courses. Analytically, 29.9 per cent are university graduates, with a further 30.8 per cent having postgraduate or doctoral qualifications. The majority of visitors are aged between 20 and 50, with 6 out of 10 belonging to this age group.
Two out of 10 visitors have an annual income below €10,000. Around 62 per cent have an annual income between €10,000 and €45,000, while 18.5 per cent have an income over €45,000.
Most of the visitors were already informed about Samaria before their journey to Crete. Information was obtained mostly from the internet (51.1 per cent), with 40.1 per cent receiving it from friends and family who had previously visited the area. However, 58.3 per cent were unaware that the Samaria Gorge has been designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, although 53.9 per cent knew about the protected species in the park.
The bus remains the most popular means of getting to Samaria, with 42.1 per cent arriving in tourist buses and another 20.6 per cent via KTEL. Of the tourists arriving in 2022, 67.3 per cent were visiting Samaria for the first time, the remainder having visited the park in the past.
Analysis of the data showed that 21.8 per of visitors were greatly or decisively influenced by the existence of the Samaria National Park in their decision to choose Crete for their holidays. This shows once again that the Park constitutes an important asset for the Cretan economy,
Admission prices
In the hypothetical case of an increase in the price of admission, most visitors said that they would come again if they had to pay from €2 to €10 extra (the current price of admission is €5). More specifically, 84.9 per cent would visit again if they had to pay €2 extra, 55.7 per cent would pay €5 extra and 20.8 per cent would pay €10 extra. Finally 15.1 per cent said that they would not visit Samaria if the price was increased, whatever the amount.
Visitor satisfaction
The Samaria Gorge received positive feedback on almost all measures of visitor satisfaction, people being clearly satisfied by their visit.
Visitor satisfaction scores at the Samaria Gorge in 2022
Top marks were given to the scenery, local businesses in the wider area, the service given by park employees, and the rest areas along the route. High marks were also given for the various facilities inside and outside the Gorge, the advice given by guides, the system for collecting recyclable waste along the length of the path, signage, safety, information provided about the park and the time allowed within the park.
The lowest marks (3.22 out of 5) were given for the cost of getting to and from the Gorge. Visitor satisfaction here was low because while the €5 admission fee is modest, the cost of travel by bus, by boat from Agia Roumeli, etc adds significantly to the expense of a trip.
The majority of visitors said that they would recommend a visit to the national park to family and friends, but it also transpired that a proportion of the visitors were inspired to make other hiking expeditions within the main part of the park or in the surrounding mountains.
The visitors also appeared inclined to have a meal in a local taverna, while there was also interest for overnighting in the area, with 3.73 out of 5 favouring this option.
The overall satisfaction rating by visitors was 4.23 out of 5.
Conclusions
The tourist season of 2022 was a special one for Crete, since there was an explosion of visitors to the island after the period of the pandemic. The effects were inevitably felt by the Samaria National Park, where the number of visitors was a record for the past 16 years.
Once more last year the visitors seem to have had an excellent experience, and the fact that they are inclined to recommend it to friends and family as a holiday destination is indicative of the area’s potential for further touristic and economic development. Their inclination to stay overnight and to consume local products in the area’s restaurants promises to bring multiple benefits for the local economy. The willingness of visitors to stay in the wider area and to try out different mountain excursions, both inside and outside the park, is an indicator of the area’s appeal.
It is clear that in addition to its major environmental value the park also has considerable economic value. The record number of visitors experienced since the lifting of pandemic restrictions, together with the satisfaction they have expressed with their visit and with the conditions and services they encountered, shows clearly that Samaria is a permanent focus of attraction which benefits the local area as well as Chania and the whole of Crete.
