Farmers’ blockades on major roads affect Northern Greece tourism

The first and direct effects of the agricultural mobilizations have been identified in the road tourism sector, while for the time being no serious problems have been recorded -except for delays- in exports and market supply.

However, the effects will be magnified and will affect market supply if the blockades continue and farmers proceed to blockade ports, customs, airports and national roads.

While farmers remain at the blockades, where there are frequent moments of tension and leave open the possibility of the tractors descending on Athens, the Supreme Court prosecutor asked the appeals prosecutors to intervene immediately when offenses are committed, such as the disruption of transport safety by farmers who line up thousands of tractors on key roads and national highways. In Crete, the process of identifying the people who participated in Monday’s incidents continues.

As agriculture is becoming a major issue for the government, the political leadership of the Ministry of Rural Development called on farmers to come to a dialogue, but at the same time 6 New Democracy MPs, in their question to Parliament, complained that payments to farmers amounting to 21 million euros were cut.

Thessaloniki

Thessaloniki’s first losses due to the agricultural mobilizations are already evident in the tourism sector. As the general secretary of the Association of Tourist Offices of Macedonia-Thrace, Stefanos Hatzimanolis, pointed out to “N”, since Saturday they began to a small extent, but now there are more and more cancellations of road trips from neighboring Balkan countries to Thessaloniki for the holiday period. Also, many of the clients of travel agencies who have given advances and/or those who want to give advances or pay for their upcoming trip are asking the travel agencies for written assurances that the trips will take place normally.

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For this reason, the Association is asking farmers to guarantee that they will allow the passage of tourist buses and to announce it as soon as possible, otherwise a big problem arises not only for travel agencies, but also for the hotels where the relevant reservations have been made and other professional classes (drivers, tour guides, etc.). “We do not want to experience again what we experienced with the pandemic, which is why we are addressing farmers in a timely and preventive manner,” the general secretary of the Association noted.