Greece

One of the main things that motivated me to continue studying for my A levels was definitely the  trips I had planned for the summer. Friends, beach and booze. Those three words sum up my experience in Greece over the summer. By far, one of the nicest places I visited so far, categorised by its beautiful scenery and delicious delicacies.

Although, there is an unpleasant side to such a charming country which all began in late 2009. This is known as the Greek debt crisis,  where it became acknowledged that their budget deficit was 12.9% of their GDP (gross domestic product). With Germany being owed an astounding amount of €87 billion from Greece. As a result, various austerity measures were established in the hope of reducing its debt crisis.

"The crisis triggered the eurozone debt crisis and created fears of a global financial crisis. It threw into question the viability of the eurozone itself. It warns of what could happen to other heavily indebted EU members. All this from a country whose economic output is no bigger than the U.S. state of Connecticut."

Some of the measures had diverse negative impacts on the locals. Employment dropped drastically, many riots arose, citizens were in a state of poverty and the ATM became a daily visit with a long waiting time. 

"The working poor are those who are employed and whose disposable income puts them at risk of poverty.
‘Employed’ is defined here as being in work for over half of the year and ‘risk of poverty’ is defined as having an income below 60% of the national median.In the Greek reality, this translates to  over half a million workers or 1/3 of the employees in the private sector, who get  less than 376 euros a month, many of whom have a university education but are unable to find work in their field."

Despite, such instances the number of incoming tourists were not negatively affected. As seen in the graph below, during the initial realisation of Greece's sovereign debt, tourism was stagnant. Surprisingly enough their crisis did not stop people from visiting and a 7% increase in tourists has been witnessed in 2017 thus the number of tourists rose drastically.

The astounding amount of tourist arrivals is highly valuable for Greece since it is considered to be one of their main sources of economic income.