Corfu Tourist Crisis.

[martin-w]

Hi All again,
I have found a website relating to holidays in Corfu in general. They do a 'newsletter' on a quarterly basis and there are some quite interesting subjects printed there, including food, and things going on in Corfu generally.
There is a very interesting piece on why the 'big boys' are getting cold feet and pulling the  plug on package holidays and the apparent high cost of the main airport for short haul operators from the U.K. It states that they are mainly to blame for the current situation, by overcharging the holidaymakers and only paying a pittance to the hoteliers, which is what I have suspected for some time now.
<www.happyholidayscorfu.com>
By for now,
Martin.   

[Paul C]

A very interesting article Martin. One that we should all read to understand some of the reasons why there are so many business closures in Corfu. Yes the "big boys" are partly to blame,but there are many other issues that all have helped the decline in tourism to the island.
Paul

[blondegirl]

Martin... I found that really interesting to read.   Couldnt believe it when they say that owners might receive only a 5th or even a 10th of the cost.  Not much is it?

I also had forgotton about the runway, when we first went to Corfu my biggest worry was the length of the runway, now I dont even think about it. It doesnt look very long on the photo does it.  I was interested to read about a new one supposedly being built at Lefkimi, probably wont happen is what I understood to be the case. 

Also the amount of Uk ex pats living on the island about 15,000 more than any other nationality. 

thanks for that Martin... I enjoyed reading that!

[Lindypops]

Very interesting Martin. One hotelier was telling us, they only get around £4 each night, for each room. They work so hard too.

[Ruth Potts]

A fascinating article Martin, thanks for making us all aware of it. Was quite surprised at how many Ex pats are on the island (of all nationalities). Never really appreciated it. Would love to be one myself!

[iluvsangeorge]

Sadly my gut feeling is that the Corfu Tourist Industry has declined for good from the high levels of several decades ago.   
Tourism has now become really Global with new places opening up every year to suit OUR thirst to see more of the world, so what chance does a tiny island like Corfu have ?
We cannot blame the Tour Operators entirely as they FOLLOW our demands. They wouldn't cut flights to Corfu if the demand was still there.

Is Corfu fighting back to respond to these changes ?  NO !  How much advertising do we see for the island on TV or in the popular press?  I may be wrong but I doubt if the island has a decent budget  to promote Tourism and probably has to take what little the Greek Government hands out (along with countless other small islands).

A Corfu travel agent made a special visit to the Greek National Tourist Office (GNTO) in London a couple of years ago to plead this case and her words to me were "they didn't want to know" !  MY opinion is that they are like the ostrich which buries its head in the sand but unfortunately when it lifts it out again the world has changed and it has been left behind. From my web-site I receive quite a few emails which highlight visitors needs and concerns so I emailed the GNTO asking who in Corfu I could contact to just pass on these comments and suggestions which might help the area.  I had NO reply whatsoever to 5 emails all addressed to different officials !!!

The GNTO really needs to spend a bit of money to PUT the name of CORFU back in the  faces of the the audience. I am sure that most people who follow  Forums like this do their bit but it is not enough.

Dennis

[Diane x]

That is really interesting, have to say the airport does somewhat put people off Corfu. When I have told people about going to Corfu, the airport chaos is the first thing that gets mentioned ! personally for me it's all part of the fun.

Dianex

[TerryW]

Thanks for posting the link Martin, fascinating reading.

Corfu was one of the last places I would have thought of visiting, when I was looking for alternative holidays to Kefalonia, at this time last year. I just thought that Corfu was an island with noisy resorts and and was over commercialised. How wrong can one be?

Now, after finding Arillas, I find that after booking my second holiday at the Horizon with Libra, it gets cancelled. I have now booked direct and and have found flights at a reasonable cost. The upside of this is that the Horizon has all of my accomodation money, Theo has all of my car hire money, and I was able to choose my own flights. The holiday is costing about £200 more than it would have costed with Libra.

I think that days of cheap holidays to places like Arillas are coming to an end, but on the other hand I don't think that the additional costs will be excessive. The tour operators don't really care about the holiday makers and the hotel owners, they are just driven by profit. I bet that a lot of people who used to go to Corfu, are now going to Croatia and other cheaper places, but in time the prices to these destinations will also get inflated.

Maybe we would all be better off, tourists and hotel owners, if we all booked independently. The extra costs could help to ensure that the holidays we love are still available for many years to come.

There was a good link to a  Bouzouki Improvisation video ( http://www.happyholidayscorfu.com/movies.html ) on the http://www.happyholidayscorfu.com/ home page.

Thanks again Martin.

[ger]

like you terry, corfu was the last place we would have thought of, we had booked to go to the peloppenese but the flight was cancelled from bristol, so we were given the option to cancel, which we did, but were then in a dilema, where else could we go that was going to be as quite and non touristy? when the travel agent said corfu we laughed! images of club 18 - 30 sprang to mind!! but as i used to work with said travel agent i knew she was telling the truth when recomending arillas! and the rest as they say is history!! but when you tell people that you're going to corfu, well it does get raised eyebrows, as unfortunately it does have that image.
ger x

[dimitris]

Well said Terry,
Personally I believe that If the Tourist industry would have been too successful, then places like Arillas would have been so commercialized and reached the state of sidari and cavos something that we all don’t want . I’m  not happy for what is happening with the tour Operators right now  but I also see the positive results that this situations may bring.
I have never believed that more people means more money . I have been leting my Apartment and two rooms  for the  last 17 years only with independent travelers and  of course they were never full form may the 1st to October the 31st but I have been making a good living out of this., plus, the kind of people that came to stay with us were exactly those that would have loved Arillas.

[blondegirl]

Our regular two weeks used to be in Crete, the flights there  have become so expensive even though we could get cheap and very good accommodation it was still too much for our budget. 

Corfu wasnt somewhere I wanted to go to as I thought of too many mozzies and the likelihood of rain but we took a chance and went to Agios Gordios.   We had a fabulous relaxing holiday and wanted to go back but couldnt find the same accommodation in the Manos brochure.  So doing a search found a good deal with Thomas Cook at the Galini in Arillas and from there we were hooked!  This site made it easy for us "settle in" to our new holiday destination.  Last year was with The Bardis sun Studios and now this year with Dorita at the BS Hotel.  I felt sorry for her last year when the place was almost empty and I am so pleased as she has gone independent and  that she is much busier.  By the way we have paid £60 less going independent than we have done for the last two years and I am very happy that Dorita gets all the money.  One quick phone call to her and it was done.. going through a TA is all administration fees and taxes etc.

It was a good point to read that if they dont get much profit then how can they expect to keep "up appearances" of the accommodation, that has a knock on effect as the TA  wont use them as they are not up to standard.  Anybody knows that if you are self employed then there isnt that much profit, it has to be plowed back into the business to make it work. (Mike has been SE now for over 40 years and can vouch for that).

[vivian]

Our holiday in May has cost us about £200 extra because of the holiday company having to pull out but we know that it is going straight to the Bardis family and are happy about that. Arillas with crowds and chip's to me the thought is just horrable. Viv

[TONYNEW]

We stayed just outside of Sidari by the BP station last year its the 1st time we have been since 2002 and boy what a change we actually only had 1 night in Sidari itself that was more than enough
we tended to eat at Bovias or Salt and pepper which were both excellent as was the meal we had at the Orchard on the canal d'amour road ,but the center of Sidari had lost its appeal for us we spent more time in San Stef and Arillas on our trips out on the scooter far superior to Sidari
                                              Tony