Greece Is The Word (or not)

I was reading today about how the Greek Tourism board is predicting a huge decrease in the number of tourists this year, particularly cruise passengers. "It probably means three million fewer tourists," said Nikos Angelopoulos, chairman of the SETE Greek tourism association. The impact on Greece, he predicted, will be at least $6.68 billion in lost revenue and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. So why are bookings down 20% and the luxury cruise market down 50%? The reasons are many, but it's not just the economy. Sometimes we Americans think we're the only ones out there cruising, but many European cruises are filled with (ready for the big surprise?) Europeans! For them, it's just a drive or train to the port, so many ships sell a huge number of "cruise only" guests who don't have to worry about international airfare. Kind of like how our ships fill up in Miami, Ft. Lauderdale, New York or Los Angeles with mostly Americans on board. Yesterday, I did a bit of a rant (though well-warranted) against Alaska for being greedy and ungrateful for the tourist boom that enhanced and enriched their state over the last 50-60-70 years. Today, I'll tell you that some of the fault in Greek cruise tourism can be laid firmly at the feet of the Greek government, and their well-intentioned attempts at protectionism. It worked for years. Now technology is working against them.

(Mama - what the heck is he TALKING about???)

Pipe down, young 'un....I'm getting there! OK, time for a little-known fact. Would you want to do a cruise that started in Miami, and ended in Biloxi Mississippi? Or one from New York that ended in Baltimore? Why would you do that? You're virtually forced to buy more expensive airfare into one city and back from another. You certainly couldn't drive and leave your car, then wind up in another city! That makes no sense. Enter the Greek government. Think about this - if you really wanted to see Greece and the Greek islands, wouldn't you want to start and end your cruise in Athens, and be able to easily add on a land package tour if you wanted to explore Mount Olympus, Delphi or any of the surrounding countryside? Of course you would. But try doing it on a modern, competitive ship. Impossible. That's because years ago, the Greek government passed a protectionist law, in an effort to protect the jobs of Greek sailors, which in effect says if you are going to sail roundtrip from Athens, you have to have a Greek-flagged ship with Greek officers (and mostly, if not all Greek staff). That cuts out virtually every major brand name you can think of: Royal Caribbean, Carnival, Celebrity, Holland America, Cunard, Princess and on and on. Those lines are permitted to bring passengers into Athens for a day, and a few are even allowed to start or end their cruise in Athens (the actual seaport is called Piraeus). However, if they begin or end in Athens, they have to have a secondary start/finish point such as Istanbul, Venice, etc. which gets you back to the Miami to Biloxi argument. So if there are no major cruise lines in Greece, what do they offer? They offer smaller, older cruise ships - mostly those that have put in 20, 30 or more years of service elsewhere in the world. They then slap on a couple coats of paint, change the carpet, re-name them and voila! You now have a cruise ship ready to sail roundtrip from Athens. But how many of you cruisers out there want to sail on a ship with 30 years on it? 20? Most people cringe at ships that are 10 years old, and that's why those ships are often moved to the shorter 3-, 4- and 5-day cruise market, simply because they can't compete visually or on a technology basis with the shiny new products that come out every year. Looking for balconies on a 30 year old ship? Good luck with that. Atriums with glass elevators? Hardly. No, this practice worked through the 70's and 80's and even into the 90's to some degree for the Greeks, but as people have become more demanding and discerning, they are far less-likely to downgrade their accommodations to visit Greece in particular. Europe has a lot of history, and many people find it much easier to book cruises that are roundtrip Rome, roundtrip Barcelona, or roundtrip London. Those governments allow the nicest, newest, most expensive cruise lines to service their ports, and it pays great dividends in tourism to their countries. Maybe it's about time for the Greek Senate to consider the overall prosperity of their country, and not just the handful of sailors who fill their small, aging fleet.

All your money...Yes Ma'am that's right, and please and thank you.

An alleged bank robber in Stow, Ohio was recently arrested after a brief chase by police, who were summoned to National City Bank. Feliks Goldshtein is now in custody, but it may have been his politeness that got him where his is now. According to bank employees, Goldshtein entered the bank wearing a ski mask, but noticed a line of customers already in qeue. Rather than causing a commotion, he decided to wait patiently in the teller's line, and only displayed a gun when he finally reached the counter. That gave bank employees plenty of time to call, and police time to arrive, before the perpetrator was able to, well, perpetrate. At least he didn't try the drive-thru.

Here's a little story from the Madisonville, KY "Messenger". Police couldn't help but notice a man, who had a very unusual driving pattern. He was driving a truck, and he'd drive about 100 yards, stop, walk back to a second truck, drive it right up behind the first truck, stop, walk back to the first truck, drive it 100 yards beyond the second truck, and so on. This went on for some time, before officers decided they had to see what was going on. After identifying themselves and asking what was going on, the driver told police he was doing this because his brother was passed out drunk in one of the trucks. He was trying to drive both trucks home, at more or less the same time. Not surprisingly, a blood-alcohol test showed the driver to be nearly as impaired as bed-time brother.

Price check on aisle seven!

Yale University student Jesse Maiman, 21, filed a lawsuit against US Airways in March, claiming that someone stole the Xbox console from his luggage. His lawsuit is asking for damages. The request? $1 million. Yes, dollars. Yes, American. Yes he attends Yale. Yes, we appear to have an entire generation with difficulty distinguishing reality from the video game of life....