Fourth International Conference on Tourism and Leisure Studies

Abstract

The refugee crisis that climaxed in Greece in 2015 brought a wave of international publicity on the economically devastated country. News stories of the financially bankrupt nation were supplemented by ones focusing on the plight of hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants pouring in Greece, mostly as a result of the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011. The crisis overwhelmed Greece, not only as a sociopolitical crisis, but also a humanitarian one. This paper explores the impact of the crisis on the nation’s leading economic industry – tourism – and regards the relationship between news events and their impact on Greece’s ‘nation brand.’ Interviews with residents in Athens and Nafplion were conducted during the height of the crisis to determine public opinion on refugees. Contrary to the tragic scenes involving drownings and deaths in the crisis that flashed across the global media system, in Greece itself the interviews indicated a general increase in support for undocumented migrants. Despite the impact of earlier rioting in Greece as a result of the economic meltdown and the austerity measures imposed on tourism into the country, no such correlation took place with the refugee crisis. In fact, tourism rose during the three-year period, 2014 to 2016, when the largest wave of refugees entered the country. The results may indicate that Greece’s nation-brand is far more stable and more resilient to certain crises than previously assumed.