Greece’s “heavy industry” tourist sector took a major knock after the migrant crisis. By shifting its focus and extending the season, it is coming back bigger than ever. Tell anyone to picture modern-day Greece and most will conjure up media images of displaced people in open boats fleeing war. For tourists looking to escape the daily grind, this distorted view of the country was not appealing. “A lot of people called us thinking it wasn’t safe,” Greece’s national tourist organisation representative to Benelux Angeliki Tzifa told Delano during a press trip in June. “We explained many times that it was but when you see TV news with demonstrations and refugees, you could easily think you will visit the Acropolis and see a boatload of refugees.” Given that tourism accounts for a fifth of the country’s GDP, leaders and tourism actors have rallied to bring them back. Gastro-tourism Stamatis Mylonas is among the pioneers helping carve a new niche for their country. The third generation of a family of winemakers, he took over his father’s sprawling vineyard south of Athens on the Attica peninsula in 2006. “My father used to only sell wine in bulk,” he recalled, adding that he would even buy in grapes from other growers to increase capacity. “We shrank production because my father used to sell a lot of bad wine and we went to high quality production. Less but better and more expensive.” Photo: Maison Moderne. Yoleni’s in Athens is part of a franchise selling high-quality Greek… [Read full story]
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