Irregular
Disruption to Ferry Services
Industrial
action is hitting some ferry services
Following the
General Strike
on May 5 when the protests in Athens over the dire economic situation
left 3 people dead in a bank fire - an event
that shocked even the protesters - there has been
a significant reduction in number of subsequent demonstrations.
For the most part protests in Greece have been peaceful and confined
to the centre of Athens. (If you look at the TV news footage
closely
the groups clashing with the police are rarely more than three
individuals deep.) Island hoppers are unlikely to encounter problems
provided
they avoid the city centre on strike days.
Disruption to Ferry Schedules
The
pattern of ferry disruption during strike days is rather odd and
worth commenting on. Roughly once a month there is a General Strike
that lasts 48 hours.
These events are signalled well in advance. Most transportation systems
in Greece, such as rail and bus services, just shut down entirely
on
the strike dates, but ferries do continue to run in some circumstances.
On
General Strike days there are NO ferry departures from mainland
ports. However, boats already at sea do continue
with their planned
journeys even on strike days, only stopping when
they return to the mainland
port. This means that there is limited inter-island
activity by long-haul boats on strike days. The sting in
the tail
is that boats
don’t
depart on long-haul trips during the strike, so there
is a knock-on to levels of service for several days
after a
strike has ended.
In addition to
the occasional General Strike, there are also smaller pockets of
disruption at Piraeus where groups of other strikers occasionally
blockade the ramps of a few targeted ferries, causing delays to
services. These are proving pretty unpopular, and a combination
of peer pressure and greater policing is resulting the number of
incidents falling. Athens' second port of Rafina doesn't seem to
be suffering from this sort incident.
All in all, the
advice to island hoppers has to be to build plenty of flexibility
into your travel plans, avoiding
hopping
on the strike
dates, and book travel arrangements around these
dates as early as you
can. With careful planning you should be able to
holiday without being
seriously inconvenienced by the strike.
The
impact of Greece’s woes on Island Hopping holidays
Ferry strikes aside, the economic problems encountered
by Greece this year have so far worked in the favour
of tourists. The
recent troubles in Athens are impacting on tourist
levels to the country,
but though the reported decline is around 10 per cent
on last year, Athens itself is suffering the brunt
of the fall. The
islands have
yet to see major protests or disruption and as a result
visitor numbers remain healthy, with the popular islands
such as Mykonos
and Kos
reporting no fall in visitor numbers compared to 2009.
Thanks to being locked into the euro, Greece hasn't’t
been able cut prices by lowering its exchange rate
dramatically, (though
with
the euro falling against both the dollar and sterling
holidaying in Greece is becoming cheaper). However,
hotels in Athens
have cut prices by an average of 10 per cent this
year, with smaller
reductions
on restaurant prices as well. Accommodation prices
in the islands are also dropping, with some heavy
discounting
of
some package
holidays and villa/holiday home rentals.
Part of the fall in prices in the islands is due
to a slump in German holiday bookings. This is
thanks to the
combination
of
Greek outrage
at suggestions in a German tabloid that they
start selling islands to reduce their budget deficit,
and popular anger
in Germany
over the bailing out of Greece. Holidaying in
Greece isn't
exactly a popular concept in Germany at the moment.
The austerity measures brought in by the Greek
government have yet to have an impact on the
transportation system.
Thus far
only one
bus route in Athens has been cancelled, and
outside of strike periods the ferry system is operating
normally. The biggest
likely change
this summer is going to be in the relative
popularity of different types of boats. The local enthusiasm
for the high speed catamarans
and ferries is likely to wane as circumstances
force many to return to cheaper options. The
Greek government
has already
quietly relaxed
the age restrictions on ferries in order to
allow
more of the older and cheaper boats to continue
operating.
Island hoppers
may well
find that instead of sometimes finding it hard
to get tickets on peak period high speed boats,
it might getting
tickets for
the slower
old boats that poses the bigger challenge.
