This is the reaction of local Hotelier and President of the Lasithi Hoteliers Association, Mr. M. Varkarakis, regarding the support that the Prefecture of Lasithi has received in the face of the new tourist season, and added that, “the steam engine has started to misfire”.
“Crete is considered a second-rate region, even though it is the flagship of tourism in Greece”, he commented. He reaches this conclusion, based on for example, the fact that, when at the same time that the plans for the new Northern National Highway on Crete are still being discussed on paper only, there is an enormous motorway already under construction in the Peloponnese.
In reference to the Prefecture of Lasithi, he said that we are the “poor relative”, explaining that apart from the section of the coastal road in Sitia that has collapsed, there are serious issues with the road connection between Agios Nikolaos and Sitia, and not forgetting the current diversions, that mean that the journey Heraklion to Agios Nikolaos, can now take upto….2 hours!
“In 10-15 days, the hotels will begin to open. After Easter, there will be a slump, but from the 1st May and onwards, they will all begin to work well,” Mr. Varkarakis said, confirming the very promising reports, from the various tourist fairs that took place this winter. The important factor however, is to encourage a better standard of tourism to our area, with high occupancies in the hotels in the low season months of May, September and October.
But, for which tourism are we talking about, if the areas of health and safety are in question? The tourists, especially those with higher incomes, who will “leave” money in Crete, demand infrastructure and standards. “Let’s start at the airport….something has to be done so that the tourists don’t have to wait for hours to collect their suitcases. On the other hand, it’s not possible to not have a clinic. The Agios Nikolaos Hospital should be at it’s peak, but instead of that, they are closing departments”, commented the President of the Lasithi Hoteliers Association, highlighting that many of their guests make requests about the medical facilities available in the resorts.
We hear all the time that Tourism is the “locomotive” of the economy but, “the locomotive has started to misfire because of the huge wave of taxation.” He puts this down to the Central Government’s lack of initiative or possibly the lack of knowledge in how to support the tourism product.