Shopkeepers feel pinch of Olympic economy

Lack of tourists translates to lack of business instead of boom

updated 1:35 a.m. ET Aug. 11, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - As Nikos Theodorakos gift wraps small statues of ancient gods, he’s not sure who to blame for his recent misfortunes.

This was supposed to be a booming week, just as the Olympics are about to begin. But Theodorakos has had few customers. Like other shopkeepers, he’s feeling the pinch from a pre-games slump in vacation bookings.

“We have no one to blame but ourselves and the government,” he said Tuesday, working extra shifts at his father’s shop in Athens’ tourist district just to make ends meet. “You still hear stories about taxi drivers and kiosks overcharging tourists. We’re earning a reputation as thieves.”

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Analysts offer a wide variety of reasons for the decline: overcharging, a sluggish international economy, the strong European currency, fears of terrorist attack during the games, and difficulties in buying Olympics tickets overseas.

Compared with 2003, holiday arrivals are down 8 percent so far this year, according to estimates by the Association of Greek Tourism Businesses. About 14 million people visit Greece every year, and tourism makes up about 12 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.

Fewer than half of the 5.3 million Olympic tickets have been sold, and a few hotel rooms are still available despite earlier fears of an acute accommodations shortage.

Stavros Vassilopoulos, who works at a cafeteria beneath the city’s main attraction, the ancient Acropolis, blames the summer doldrums on a climate of fear lingering since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

“I think it had a major impact. The media — foreign and Greek — have been blowing everything out of proportion,” Vassilopoulos said. “Business for us here has nose-dived. It hasn’t been this bad in years.”

Bars, supermarkets, restaurants and hotels around Greece jacked up prices ahead of the games in hopes of making a killing.

Over the past month, fraud inspectors sent cases involving dozens of businesses to the public prosecutor in a bid to crackdown on profiteering.

Now they needn’t bother: Hotels and holiday resorts have begun slashing prices to try to cover their losses.

“I’d like to see what happens next year,” said Antonis Mavros, a hotelier on the remote Aegean island of Koufonisia. “No one will come here.”