Greece Bias Against Gays-Lesbians Compounds Debt Crisis as Tourism Suffers - Now Read On

A lot of LGBT people are likely to see this headline without reading the article and immediately think that far from being the cradle of Democracy that Greece has become the cradle of homophobia

To begin let me reassure prospective visitors to Greece that Greek people are some of the most welcoming people in the world. While they may not 'understand' homosexuality, as such they have no objection to gay people so you will not find yourselves singled out for 'special' treatment, you will be treated as a visitor to their country and hospitality will be extended to you on the same basis as any other visitors.

You know me I do not get political, I am usually too busy talking about holidays, but every so often I find something which really gets my goat......And this is it.

Doing the rounds of the gay (and other) press over the last couple of weeks has been this article from Bloomberg News, Greece Bias Against Gays-Lesbians Compounds Debt Crisis as Tourism Suffers Now as if the bad publicity that Greece has received because of strikes, demonstrations, and rising taxes were not enough, we get this......One of the best examples of irresponsible journalism that I have ever seen in my life, nothing like kicking a man when he is down!

So let's have a look at the article in more detail to see what it actually says.......

"Gay and lesbian tourists, who for decades flocked to the islands of Mykonos and Lesbos, have removed Greece from their list of top destinations because of discrimination, according to surveys by Amsterdam-based OutNow Consulting."

OutNow consulting are a company specialising in LGBT marketing, i.e. they tell companies and governments what they should do and how they should behave towards LGBT people which I personally find insulting as it suggests that I am a person with 'special needs'! So I had a look at their web site to see if I could see this survey, nowhere could I find a survey that said 'Are you avoiding Greece because they do not allow civil partnerships'? I did find last year's Global survey, and the ongoing 2020 survey, but neither of them has a question along the lines of 'Would you avoid a country that does not have same-sex partnerships'?

So how do they come to this conclusion?

"Greece failed to make the list of the top 10 countries where gay travelers were interested in taking a holiday in the next three years, according to the survey. Athens didn’t appear among the top 20 city destinations."

It is true that many people are avoiding Athens, not just the LGBT population, many visitors have been put off by seeing demonstrations, but if you look at the OutNow Global survey for 2010 you will notice that Athens is not even listed as a possible destination within the next 3 years, small wonder then that it doesn't appear in the top 20! Athens does appear in the 202o survey, but as this is not very representative, being only available in English, it can hardly be taken as fact!

So why are LGBT tourists eschewing Mykonos and Lesvos?

In the case of Mykonos the answer is easy....Mykonos is old hat. Forty years ago it was a gay island, until the mass tourism companies got hold of it and realised, probably along with the Mykonites themselves, that you couldn't make money just out of marketing to LGBT travellers, and as anyone can tell you LBGT visitors to Mykonos have long been a minority, indeed, in August and early September, Mykonos is a party island for Greek youth of all sexes! I suspect that the same applies to Lesvos. Whether we as LGBT people like it or not, we are only a small sector of the population and from my own experience we do not spend proportionally any more than anyone else does.

The Bloomberg article, and OutNow, conveniently ignore that fact that over the last forty years a veritable of host of new destinations has become available to travellers with the resources to visit them, which can also account for some of the reduction in tourism to many 'traditional' destinations. In fact, in spite of what the Greek government statistics may say, here on Crete, for many businesses July was the worst month they have had for many years from all sectors of the population not just LGBT.

To be fair to Bloomberg who published the article, they are only passing on information given to them, and the real culprits here are OutNow who are hoping to ingratiate themselves with the Greek government and earn a bit fat consultancy fee by pretending they have the answer to the problem (sorry Ian, I know you are a friend on Facebook, but you really are just looking for opportunities for new business).

"About 75 percent of gay travelers will seek a hotel that welcomes same-sex couples, according to Hannah Burden, spokeswoman for the Thomson, Thomson Cruises and First Choice holiday brands ofTui Travel Plc (TT/), the U.K. majority-owned unit of Germany-based Tui AG (TUI1)and Europe’s largest tour operator.

Thomson last year started marketing vacations for gay and lesbian travelers, including wedding packages to the Spanish island of Ibiza. The company uses the GayComfort Certified accreditation system, developed by OutNow and endorsed by the International Gay and Lesbian Travel Association."

Well yes, but then again possibly no......While I do, to a certain amount, applaud the efforts of Thomson, a brief look at their LGBT brochure reveals that only one of their hotels is actually specifically LGBT and that is on Mykonos and a quick look at the most recent TripAdvisor reports reveals that they all say the same thing, which is that particular hotel is expensive....And this is another feature which has been reported about Mykonos over the last couple of years, it is an expensive island. In fact looking at Thomson's hotel details they have a very negative statement about the hotels 'being open to anyone over the age of 16 but be aware that gay people might be staying there'.....Well that applies to any hotel in the world, and is an open invitation for homophobic people to book into the same hotel and jeer at the gay people or even worse physically attack them. It is also guaranteed to put off straight people with children!

The only real involvement as far as TUI is concerned is putting bums on (uncomfortable) aircraft seats and putting bodies in beds and if you believe they are in business to make anything but a profit then you are sorely mistaken.

The point that is most often missed about tourism is, that it is going to take place irrespective of gay marriage or civil rights. In the case of Greece of course we have several thousand years of history and civilisation and it is rather a case of, 'if you want to see the Pyramids you have to go to Egypt' so if you want to see the Acropolis you have to go to Greece, and if you want to see Angkor Wat.....

As an LGBT person you might like to think that everyone at your holiday destination gets treated the same way as you do in your home country, but you should always remember that wherever you go you are supposed to respect the laws and customs of that country. As things change only slowly in Greece you could well be waiting some time if you intend to boycott Greece until the legalise same-sex unions! It is highly unlikely in the near future that same-sex marriages will be recognised, as such a thing is not within the realms of understanding of many Greek people, even if it were made legal there would be very few Greeks who would take advantage of it as the social structure does not allow for it! You can hardly describe the lack of same-sex partnerships as 'bias' in any case. And legislation does cost money in spite of what the article says and the financial gain by enacting legislation is in any case open to question as the evidence for the 'Pink Dollar' is rather anecdotal......

So what can Greece do to improve its tourism when it already gets 19 million tourists a year?

Where the Greek tourism industry falls down is by not extracting enough cash from the existing tourists because, in spite of what you may hear, Greece has some of the cheapest accommodation in the world, what makes it appear expensive is the mark up put on it by the foreign mass tourism companies and until the Greek government address this by specifying a minimum rate for accommodation or by openly discouraging mass tourism not a lot is going to change and this of course has nothing to do with the sexual preferences of the prospective visitors!

The Search for a Home

OK so the house was for sale and following the estate agents word, that it would sell quickly, yes even I can be gullible, I came back out two months later to look for property, that is December 2002.

Flying into Heraklion was like coming home......The familiar landscape....the airport......the drive to Hersonissos where I was staying for a week.

The only thing that was missing? Tourists. Not a single one in sight. The main road through Hersonissos was like a ghost town with newspapers blowing along the street and any minute I expected a lump of tumblewood to follow, with the sound of a creaking swinging sign or saloon door in the background, and to hear someone whistling the theme to a Fistfull of Dollars!

Property searching was the same as anywhere else, a bitter disappointment followed by elation, followed by disappointment when I got to look at the inside. We wanted something traditional but this didn't mean that it couldn't have a roof surely?

I particularly liked the place in Vrachasi and I am sure that we could have got rid of the smell of goat eventually, oh and that nice place that was split in two halves (very common here), it would have done fine because we could have put visitors in the 'sleepout', it was just the sheer climb up to it that was the problem.

As is usual around here I was eventually introduced to someone, in a bar, who had a place for sale. Voila, not quite what was intended but it had a roof, four rooms, one of those bed platforms up a few steps, an amazing stone fireplace, the old wine press as feature (in the bedroom), and three original arches. Needed some work to let a bit of light in, and another floor on top but so what!

Back to the UK in time for Christmas armed with photographs and a rough floor plan. Other half approved but wanted to see for himself, so planned on coming back in February 2003.

Arrived back again with partner....froze to death in apartment block designed for summer use, reverse cycle air con is no substitute for central heating. The wooden window frames let in lots of air, which is fine in summer but no good on Crete in February. (Why do so many people think that Crete basks in eternal sunshine? Blame it on the movies I think).

Choice of house is fully approved, existing owner doubles price, partner is exceptionally polite and resists temptation to tell him to go forth etc.

Back to Vrahasi to look at second choice, the one divided in two, except it is now divided into three as you now have to go outside and round the corner to get from the bedroom floor down to the living area, something to do with the new reinforced concrete floor and the fact they forgot to put a hole in it for the staircase. Never mind it can be fixed. Second look at 'eau de goat' property, still smelt the same.

Rather put off when the agent informs us that 'a lot of British people live here', but never mind the house in three parts will be OK, nice view across the valley and huge roof area. Oh yes and the clincher, it has two vines (believe me when I tell you it was a selling point).

{Short break there to stir the bean stew and pour another retsina.}

Right, so Vrahasi it is.

Or rather it was until that evening. Eating out in winter here is an experience even now. Wear something warm because you will need it on even inside. The woodburning stove is glowing red hot, even the metal chimney from it will give you third degree burns, but sit more than 2 metres from it and forget about being warm ever again.

General conversation among the locals....two more mad English people moving here, translations courtesy of a Greek friend, (amazing how at that time how few people here spoke English during the winter).

Greek mother, 'Where are they looking at houses?'

Her son, 'Vrahasi.'

Mother, 'Oh they can't live there.'

Son, 'Why not?'

Mother, 'It's not a good area'

Greek snobbery? Now that's something new. That was it anyway, Vrahasi was off the list.

I suppose Steve was right, how could we live somewhere if it wasn't a good area?

Back to the drawing board and back to the UK where house has still not sold..........Who buys houses in February? Certainly no one that wanted ours!