It has been a bad year for the Greek economy – the headline writers have been having a field day: “Greece Debt Crisis.” “Greece Bank Shutdown.” “Pending Grexit from Eurozone.” And the uncertainty for those living and working in the country must be hard to live with as well. July saw the introduction of capital controls to stop the whole country from withdrawing all their bank deposits in panic. There were stories of residents buying luxury goods, such as handbags and watches, fearing their cash reserves will end up devalued or worthless. Oil and gas shortages have been predicted by some, while American business news channel, Bloomberg, reported that demand for the digital currency bitcoin, as an alternative to paper and coin money, was up 500 per cent in four weeks.
“We have two charters in Greece, one happening now and one in a short while, and we haven’t heard anything about any issues or problems,” says Missy Johnston of Northrop and Johnson Worldwide Yacht Charters in Newport, Rhode Island, which has been booking Greece yacht charters for years.
Reports are just now starting to surface of the Greek debt crisis affecting tourism in cities such as Athens, where some hotel owners report bookings foundering 20 percent to 30 percent, but most people who charter yachts do so a good six months to a year ahead of time. Those charter clients from America and Europe are still heading to the yachts everywhere from Poros in the Aegean Sea to the Dodecanese Islands, and they’re still inquiring about Greece yacht charter for the 2016 season too.
“I just had somebody call for next May in Greece, and they asked what they should do,” Johnston says. “I suggested that they wait until the autumn to book, but only because we should wait to see whether Greece charter boats will be priced in euros or drachma. Otherwise it’s business as usual.”
Yacht owners and companies based in Greece are reporting a handful of charter cancellations, but no mass upheaval or anything more than a ripple in the summer yacht charter market. If anything, they say, it’s worth a phone call to a charter broker to find out if you can score a last-minute deal on a yacht that suddenly has an extra week of availability—but don’t be surprised if all the best boats are still fully booked, with charter guests already on board.
Johnston says that as a precaution, she is booking her clients onto charter yachts managed by companies in Greece that do business through escrow accounts in nations like Switzerland. Having that layer of financial protection on continental Europe will be key as Greek yacht owners continue to deal with bank crisis fallout, she says.
Cape4 Yachting, which has five offices throughout the Greek Isles and in Athens (and recently announced a merger with Fort Lauderdale-based International Yacht Collection), is also currently holding its charter deposits in non-Greek banks.
Otherwise, yacht charter business is proceeding as usual throughout the Cyclades, the Saronic islands such as Poros and Hydra, the Ionian islands and the Dodecanese archipelago. As Johnston puts it: “The boats are still there, the islands are still there, and they’re still beautiful.”
For some great Greek cruising photos, see: Yacht “Tamarisk”: around the world in 10 great images.
Santorini is one of the most popular charter destinations in the Greek Isles.
Poros, in the Aegean Islands, is easily accessible during a charter that begins near Athens.
