The newlyweds ”did enjoy” the Greek sun … but not quite as they had imagined! Climbing aboard their first plane as husband and wife, the newlyweds traveled to Crete for their honeymoon, only to be met by taxi strikes and worse, when the protests at Heraklion Airport turned violent.
Their cries of distress have been echoed by thousands of other tourists to Greece who have found their dream vacations marred by hassles and delays. These tourists have become the most detrimental advertisers for Crete and for Greece as they expressed their dissatisfaction about the situation in the country through numerous channels, including the Internet and social networking sites, sending the message out to other visitors to avoid visiting the country.
“Never again in Greece”, reported dozens of tourists on various websites after the unprecedented events that occurred yesterday at Heraklion Airport. The President of the Hotel Association of Heraklion, Andreas Metaxas, stressed that the damage is now irreversible and that Greece will face its repercussions next year.
“If one follows the blogs, they can see how they insult us . They say ‘never again in Greece”. All this bad advertising of the country will harm tourism and we will notice the results of this hassle in the summer of 2012. Now reservations have been made and people have already paid, so it is difficult to cancel them. Unfortunately, Heraklion was the first place to see these sad incidents happen,” Metaxas said.
The violence at Herklion Airport resulted in the EU Foreign and Commonwealth Office issuing a travel warning about Greece, warning visitors “to exercise caution when using the airport and to follow advice given by their Tour Operators.”
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