In The Way the Greek’s Treat Their Visitors, India Should Take Some Tips to Promote Tourism

As you land in a country, where you are greeted with a warm smile by a gorgeous looking platinum blonde immigrant agent,
and you know that your vacation is on. The one in the Mumbai International Airport are out of comparison with the charming hospitable agents of this nation which has continuously faced economic slowdown.

With a population of around 9 million, Greece has been persistently battling with economic crisis, even after which it provides a best face to endorse tourism. Not among the list of hot destination, recently Greece has been driving numerous numbers of tourists. According to the statistics, the country witnessed around 20 million visitors in the year 2012 alone, 10 million more than the count in UK in that year. 

A trip to Greece from India is much difficult than travelling to UK, as the trip to this place includes a stopover in either a West Asian hub like Dubai or Doha or in Europe. 

Due to this reason, there are very less chances to meet an Indian at every street corner of the country. We decided to visit the country in the off season period during mid- September as the peak season is during June to August. As we reached the country, we were received hospitably.  

In our 10 day tour to Athens, Mykonos and Santorini, we experienced that the owners and managers were exceptionally helpful as they helped with our directions on the map, pointed out metro stations and tourist destinations as well as paths to reach them. We had decided to stay in a 3 star rated hotel; we found that helping tourists was not missing even at these low budget places.

Tasting the local food at this place is a bit unadventurous as it features dishes like gyros or moussaka which contains meat. Owners of the restaurants will quite happily explain you the ingredients of these dishes as well as the others.  You will find that cheese is quite often used in the dishes of this country where salt and pepper is used merely.    

Still, with more number of Indian tourists visiting this place, café owners have grown acquainted with the Indian taste and needs as in few restaurants we were asked for our preference of garlic and onion and even a bottle of chilli flakes, accepting that their food was comparatively plain. Most of these restaurants will offer you free Wi-Fi, which is advantageous if you have not been connected with a global roaming number or Matrix SIM card. The ones running the Indian tourism should learn some things from the Greek tourism industry who try all most everything to please their visitors.   

   

You will surely notice a wide range of advertising from the moment you come out of your hotel and take a metro, cab or any other means of transportation. The country just doesn’t sell the usual tourist appealing jewellery items; every facet of Greek is highly advertised. From owls, donkeys, cats to even condoms are branded and sold to visitors. In addition to all these, owners of the stores allow you to browse freely and greet you happily even you buy a pencil costing only a euro.

Ref: economictimes