Greece postpones the start of summer vacation

Attempts by the Greek government is struggling to revive its tourism industry by suspending landing charges are frustrated by the refusal of charters to go hungry to savings for passengers, according to a tour operator specializing in country.

The Greek Ministry of Transport and Tourism have scrapped the landing, takeoff and handling costs to Greece in September to regional airports - which would save the average family about 40 pounds - but Noel Josephides of Sunvil says airlines keeping money.

"What bothers tour operators is that we are unable to pass these savings to our customers because airlines keeping the money," he said. "We had no notification of any of the charters, as Monarch, Thomson Airways, Thomas Cook Airlines, their intention to do otherwise."

We asked the carriers concerned to respond, but at press time, neither Thomson nor Thomas Cook had responded. Monarch said he had not yet worked on how to return the money.

"Monarch's preference would be for the Greek economy goes directly to the tour operators through a reduction in passenger taxes," he said. "However, if no other method can be established when the Monarch will try to find a mechanism to allow the economy to be forwarded to the tour operators."

The Greek tourism industry is in freefall in the face of disasters such as the number of visitors to threaten the closure of hundreds of businesses related to tourism.

People in both the cracks are already apparent. While tourism in Turkey grew by 46% according to some estimates, dozens of hotels in Corfu, Crete, Rhodes and other islands have remained closed for the Easter holidays, a period usually marked the beginning of the summer season .

Nikos Angelopoulos, president of the Tourism Association Sète, said the combination of a global recession and attractive exchange rates in non-Euro countries like Turkey and Egypt at least 3m of tourists visiting the country in 2009.

"Many hotels are closed in April and May, and we hope to break even during the peak months," he said.

In summer, reservations for more than 30%, hotel operators are offering discounts of up to 25% on peak hours, but according to CEO SETE Georgios Drakopoulos, independent travelers will have the greatest business this season.

"Go directly to hotel websites, or call them, and that is where you find the offers, even better than those offered by tour operators," he said. Island-hopping is a good deal this summer, like the Greek ferry operators has committed to maintain the winter rates, which means savings of up to 50% on all departures.