Impact Of The Economic Crisis On Greek Tourism

Impact Of The Economic Crisis On Greek Tourism Abstract: The current economic crisis has had a large effect on Greece. Two of the most important economic sectors, tourism and shipping, were seriously affected. This resulted in increased poverty and political instability. This paper focuses on describing the impact of economic crisis on Greek tourism. Therefore, the article presents the relationship between tourism and economic issues, while emphasizing the role of the European Union in fighting the Greek debt crisis. The practical part of the paper presents the results of an online survey regarding Greeces financial problems and tourism sector attractiveness. The survey includes Romanian respondents who have visited Greece at least once. Results of the study show that most Romanians will continue to travel to Greece despite countrys economic problems. Thus, the article offers relevant support in determining the impact of economic crisis on Greek tourism. Moreover, the article emphasizes tourism sector importance and encourages fu rther research. JEL classification: G01, H12, L83 Key words: economic crisis; tourism; Greek debt crisis; tourist arrivals; Romania 1. Introduction Tourism accounts for almost 20% of Greek gross domestic product and almost 17.5 million tourists visit Greece every year. However, the current recession hit Greece very strong. The violent protests and strikes in Athens, as well as the declining euro have determined many tourists to change their travel destination. Nowadays, Greece faces serious debts, increasing unemployment rates and a country image that is slowly deteriorating. In this paper, the author seeks to emphasize the impact of the economic crisis on Greek tourism. Thus, the article describes the evolution of major statistical indicators regarding Greek tourism during 2008-2010 and analyses Romanian preferences for Greek destinations in times of economic decline. Therefore, the author carried out a survey among Romanian population during January-February 2011, to provide relevant information about tourism in Greece. Results of the study show that Greek tourism remains in the top preferences of travel destinations for 2011. The reasons regard Romanians belief that Greece is a safe country despite the negative economical context and the cheap travel packages that Greeks offer in order to attract tourists. To conclude, the article presents an in-depth review on an important economic issue while providing significant support to institutions and associations oriented towards tourism in general. 2. Greek tourism during the economic crisis According to the Greek National Statistical Service, Greece is among the first 15 travel destinations in the world and the second most visited country in Europe. More than 9000 hotels and 400 campsites accommodate international and domestic visitors every year. The economic downturn started in 2008, caused significant losses in Greek tourism and hotel industry. The situation got worse in 2009, when the Institute for Tourist Research and Forecasts announced that Greece was down 20% from 2008. However, the significant drop in tourist arrivals was not entirely due to Greeces debt crisis. Countries worldwide were facing serious economic problems and, as the unemployment rates were rapidly increasing, more people decided to postpone their vacations (Conrady, 2010). In promoting travel packages, many public institutions tried to encourage tourism among consumers through marketing campaigns (Serban, 2011). Realizing the importance of maintaining the cash flows in tourism, the Greek government dropped prices and made the country less expensive for foreign visitors. Still, strikes by Greek workers and frequent protests have disrupted travel plans for many people, making them reconsider their travel to Greece. Greek government main priority is to keep the crisis primarily economic and encourage the development of tourism and shipping, two of the most important sectors of the economy. According to the report Greece Second Review Under the Stand-by Arrangement issued by the International Monetary Fund in December 2010, Greece is still fighting the debt crisis, though some economic sectors have shown signs of slow recovery. Figure 1 presents the evolution of tourism and shipping sector in Greece, during the economic crisis. The shipping sector experienced a downturn in 2009 but managed to recover very well by July 2010. Tourism, however, hardly registered positive values during the period 2008-2010. Source: Bank of Greece Figure no. 1 Evolution of tourism and shipping in Greece during January 2008 July 2010 Recent statistics on tourism provided by the European Travel Commission in the report European Tourism in 2010: Trends and Prospects, Quarterly Report (Q4/2010) show that Greece has registered low rates both in foreign visits and hotel occupancy (figure 2 and figure 3). Source: TourMIS, ETC,*Date varies by destination Figure no. 2 Foreign visits to selected destinations, 2010 As regards foreign visits, Greece has experienced low rates in the last quarter of 2010 almost 2%. Aside from the economic crisis, another reason could be countrys orientation towards summer tourism. The hotel occupancy rates registered negative values almost -5%, unlike most of the European countries. Source: STR Global Figure no. 3 Hotel occupancy rates in different countries, 2010 3. Study among romanians regarding the impact of the economic crisis on greek tourism 3.1 Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the extent to which the economic crisis in Greece has changed Romanians perceptions about traveling to this country. 3.2 Methodology The study was based on a survey conducted in January-February 2011. The survey included a self-administrated questionnaire and was considered valid only for respondents which have traveled to Greece at least once. The objective was to determine the probability of returning on vacation in this country given the rigid economical context. The study included a total sample of 67 respondents, out of which 15 respondents were eliminated because of incomplete responses or not having passed the filter question. Therefore, a final sample of 52 respondents was considered in the final research. Respondents were selected by using the random sampling method. The questionnaire was applied in public places: universities, shopping malls, hypermarkets. The questionnaire included one filter question (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã… ¾How many times did you travel to Greece?), 5 questions related to the topic and 4 socio-demographic questions related to age, sex of respondent, level of education and occupation. The questions were structured and closed, with one-choice answer. 3.3 Analyses In analyzing the answers, the completed questionnaires were at first validated. The first question included a filter in order to separate the respondents who have traveled to Greece before from the ones who had never been to Greece (figure 4). Therefore, only 52 questionnaires were considered valid. The answers to the first question showed that most respondents traveled to Greece at least once in their life more than 48% of respondents agreed. The second option was less than 3 times in their life (36%), while only 15% of respondents admitted to have visited Greece more than 3 times in their life. Figure no. 4 Frequency of travel to Greece among Romanians The second question described the types of tourism one can choose from while traveling to Greece. Though Greece is not a big country, it holds great historical landmarks, various landforms and beautiful religious sites. Figure 5 shows that most Romanians prefer going to Greece during the summer -30% of respondents agreed. However, a considerable number of respondents prefer Greece for its culture (17%), while others for its religious sites (19%). Figure no. 5 Romanian preferences regarding Greek tourism Figure 6 shows the reasons for which most respondents choose to travel to Greece. The most important factor is beautiful sightseeing 25% of respondents answered this way. Other important factors were: cultural attractions, better accommodation and similar prices to Romania. Figure no. 6 Description of reasons for traveling to Greece In addressing the economic crisis issue, the questionnaire included 3 questions. The first question described the impact of the Greek debt crisis on countrys tourism. As figure 7 shows, most Romanians consider that the economic crisis had a great influence on Greeces tourism more than 73% of respondents agreed. 2 respondents considered the impact to be low, while 13 respondents said the impact was medium. Figure no. 7 Impact of the economic crisis on Greek tourism The answers to the following questions were grouped and presented in figure 8. As a result, Romanians consider going to Greece in spite of the economic crisis (77%). Most respondents agree that the tourism sector was not seriously affected by the economic context and recent travel packages offers have made the country more attractive. Figure no. 8 Description of reasons for traveling to Greece during the economic crisis Moreover, Greece holds second position among the top foreign travel destinations for Romanians. Along with Bulgaria and Turkey, Greece is considered to be a perfect country to spend summer vacations. The reasons for which Romanians choose Greece in times of economic crisis are: cheaper accommodation (34%), special offers: bonus trips, extra-meals or airport taxes included (25%), promotional flight prices and lower docking fees for cruise ships. 5. Conclusions In this paper, the author presented some important aspects of the economic crisis in Greece. Thus, the article described the relationship between the tourism sector and the economical context in Greece as well as their relevance to the consumer. The practical part of the paper presented the results of a survey among Romanian consumers regarding Greeces economic decline and its impact on tourism. Results showed that Greeces approach for 2010 continue to reduce prices and increase the quality of services was successful among Romanians. Moreover, travel agencies in both countries indicated that the number of Romanians who cancelled their holiday to Greece because of the protests in Athens was considerable small compared to those who chose to travel to Greece in the same period. Better travel packages and a strong belief in the national safety of the country convinced many Romanians to travel to Greece in spite of the demonstrations. Another advantage of Greece in these difficult times is citizens long experience in tourism. Greece stands for tradition and culture and its values are well preserved by the population. In attracting tourists, Greeks show respect to their guests and, above all, hospitality. All these things, make the Greeces debt crisis less dramatic for the Romanian consumers. By analyzing the case of Greece, the article presents some important view-points regarding the economic crisis in Europe. The information provided reflects the amplitude of the economic crisis worldwide and its rapid spread in most areas of activity. The focus on Greek tourism and its relationship with Romania can offer specialized associations a starting point in further analyzing Romanian tourism and the current tourism strategies.

Prejudice Paper Essay

Through our own personal experience, Professor McAuliff would like us to use the topics we discussed throughout the semester to show an understanding of the concepts. Using my experience with prejudice I will be providing how what I learned in the social psychology textbook. Prejudice has been a very relevant topic I have related with throughout my life. In addition to reading and thinking about the concepts covered in the text, an important part of the learning process includes applying these concepts to your own life and experiences. Prejudice is a preconceived negative judgment of a group and its individual members (Myers). Prejudice is an attitude essentially that can be either positive or negative judgments. More than likely the prejudice someone is faced with is negative. Being that it is an attitude you also have to know about the ABC’s of attitudes. A is for the affect or feelings. B is for the behavior tendency or inclination to act. And C is for the cognitions or beliefs. They also help tie into stereotypes and discrimination. Stereotypes is a negative evaluation in which you generalize the personal attributes of a group. Discrimination is an unjustified behavior toward ones group. Whether it is conscious or automatic prejudice is your quick response to associations. â€Å"Although our [conscious] minds are in the right places and we may truly believe we are not prejudiced, our hearts aren’t quite there yet† (John Dovido, Time, 2009). With so many races in the world, it is often easy to see how quickly we are to label one another. Racial prejudice is Sco? 1 prime example of people labeled what a person should be. It goes far beyond enough for racial prejudice within the same groups some identify themselves with. People tend to point out what is wrong in their group before they admit their wrongs. In some groups you have anti- whatever the group is because a hatred developed from society. Prejudice is spread out throughout the world. Not strictly a racial epidemic it can be anything from youth disliking the elderly to genders disliking genders. It affects everyone the same especially from the negative side. When it is automatic your unconscious associations can be influenced by perceptions and reactions you have. Especially for gender prejudice, the gender role norms come into play. People have ideas on how men and women ought to behave. Often prejudice and stereotype do get confused in this area. Stereotypes only support prejudice beliefs and attitudes are separate. With more separation prejudice has social inequalities. They allow for one group to seek dominance over the other. Making groups break off into a particular status. Creating this social hierarchy that can create hostility amongst groups. Status is looked the most in regards to the negative feeling that appear in prejudice socially. Rich versus the poor is the most common social dominance orientation. The fact of the matter is people want to be on top of the hierarchy. Prejudice coming in so many forms is easy to grasp the idea of it being everywhere. Nothing beats facing prejudice for the first time. As an African American male I have been faced with plenty of different forms of prejudice. I can recall being discriminated against just for being not only black but intelligent within my own group of black people. My very own cousin would tease me and call me a â€Å"white boy†, which I am clearly not, because I was interested in school. I was the first of many of my cousins to graduate high school and instead of being proud me they would tell me I was uppity or not black enough for them. It is very hard when your very own Sco? 2 family doesn’t expect you. I wanted some much to conform to what they did but I wasn’t thety pe of person who wanted to live a life. My cousins definitely are your stereotypical black people. I have found myself in a different social class than them just because I have worked harder than they have to be something more than someone running the streets. I can agree with racial prejudice the author discusses in the textbook because it has yet to die out. However racial prejudice in the black community in my opinion is at an all-time high and very prevalent. Though we have changed since the 1940’s the anti-black prejudices haven’t. Social dominance is felt whether if it is whites being above blacks or other blacks be above other blacks. Prime example is how black rappers spend their money on material items instead of investing or saving just to compete with who have more money or more material items than they do. â€Å"†What you want, a Bentley? Fur coat? A diamond chain? All you blacks want all the same things†, a line from Kanye West’s song New Slaves. He plays off of the typical stereotypes imposed on the black community, usually considered as hood dreams. Condescendingly, he uses the term â€Å"blacks† as a euphemism and expands on this idea when he says â€Å"I know that we the new slaves† (rapgenius. com, Kanye West, 2013). Prejudice exists in our unconscious and conscious forms. It is a preconceived negative attitude that can affect some of our beliefs. It can arise in a social sources and lead people to split in groups. â€Å"Unequal status breeds prejudice† (Myers). Whether it is implicit or explicit all prejudice can mirrored from group to group. It may be a subtle action, but the small action that creates the worst problems. References Dovidio, John (2009). Prejudice Researcher. TIME. Sco? 3 Myers, D. G. (2013). Social Psychology (11th Ed. ). New York: McGraw-Hill. RapGenius. com (2013). Kanye West- New Slave Lyrics Sco? 4.

Ebusiness Case Study

CISCO CASE STUDY ANALYSIS Submitted by: Sanal Jose (1021031) Aparna Panda (1021040) Cefi Johnkutty (1021041) Sonam Sethiya (1021052) Q1. Can other corporations benefit from investing in e-business functionality to the same extent that Cisco has? A1. Yes, other corporations can benefit from investing in e-business functionality to the same extent that Cisco has. The ever-changing and dynamic business environment necessitates use of internet and e-business technologies and therefore, these are going to be the face of business in future.Other corporations can benefit highly by making a calculated investment in this field, just as Cisco has been able to do. But there are certain prerequisites which need to be fulfilled before a company invests in e-business otherwise it might lead to a failure. The most important being the organization should have a web oriented culture. The other requisites are: * The company should have a well integrated system where the internet strategies are in sync with the business strategies. * The company should encourage other businesses to network with them. The top level management should ensure the application of an internet strategy in all areas or fields. * Implementation of internet strategy and processes should be as minimum as possible. * Employees should be encouraged to develop innovative processes with the help of internet to increase productivity. * Proper evaluation of processes should be done after the implementation and improvement scope should be there. Proper evaluation of processes should be done after the implementation and improvement scope should be there. Q2.What can other corporations learn from Cisco’s approach to guiding the e-business transformation? A2. The following are some of the learning’s that other corporations can take from Cisco’s approach to guiding the e-business transformation: * A single enterprise system embracing contract manufacturers, distributors, logistics partners, develop ment engineers, service engineers, sales representatives and customers into a single information system. * Information sharing in real time. * Direct fulfillment of orders whereby most of Cisco’s contract anufacturing partners ship directly to customers. * Automatic testing: to ensure product quality by creating test cells on supplier production lines. * Faster product introduction into the market: reducing the number of steps required during prototype development. * Recognize and forecast the need for a scalable business model to meet the demand of rapid growth. * Using Internet as the foundation of an enterprise and develop business models to achieve high performance and gain competitive advantage.

The Prevention Of Sexual Assault - 2238 Words

so much looking at the prevention of sexual assault. The title of the bill is â€Å"combating military sexual assault†, which makes it seem that it should have a heavier focus on prevention and training. The appropriation of funding should not be as legal heavy, but there should be more funding that is dedicated to the SAPR program. It might be the case that the majority of funding goes to the legal aspect because addressing education and prevention means that there is this extreme cultural problem that needs to change. The bill does not look to really change this masculine culture in the military, which is a large reason for the existence of MSA. There is talk of prevention and proper training, but it does not go into detail of how to make sure the training is effective. Members of Congress have taken many legislative actions in recent years through the National Defense Association Act to strengthen and improve response to sexual assault in the military and the DoD has also made some policy changes in regards to the social issue (Battered Women’s Justice Program [BWFP], 2016). On every military installation, there is a sexual assault prevention and response program (SAPR) guided by DoD regulations and every command has a sexual assault response coordinator (SARC) with the responsibility of providing advocacy and support to survivors/victims (BWFP, 2016). They provide required training, but have yet to be consistent in the sense of trying to change the culture of the military.Show MoreRelatedSexual Assault Prevention Essay771 Words   |  4 PagesSexual Assault Prevention Sexual Assault Prevention Every two minutes a woman is sexually assaulted in the United States (FBI, 2003). 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