Economic crisis and sailing holidays in Greece
Tuesday, February 17th, 2009
Everybody nowadays is talking about economic crisis but does this really affects yacht charter industry in Greece?
It is a fact that November and December was a period that everybody was afraid about future. People were concerned about the “next day” and postponed booking summer sailing holidays. In January things changed and the figures at Easysailing and other companies were encouraging for the bareboat charters. The bookings of the fully crewed yacht charters were and still are significantly lower compared to past years. Now, in mid February, it appears that the crewed yacht charters are slow though the bareboat sailing rentals are doing rather well. Nobody can say that 2009 season will be better than 2008 because the overall bookings made till the end of January 2009 are slightly less than last year.
Through the years, the statistics show that in times of recession the yacht holidays do not follow the downbeat trend of the general tourism industry and we can see this again happening in February 2009.
But this does not happen just by itself: Easysailing and other charter companies in Greece took action in time by offering cheaper boat charters and bigger discounts and this is the main reason that the fall is small and currently “under control”.
Many would think that if they book later (in April or May) they will achieve much better prices but at the moment nothing can justify such an assumption. Today, we give bigger discounts than normal and the charter prices are inviting. The flow of the bookings coming-in is considered as “regular” and the yachting industry (especially the bareboats) is not affected so much from economic crisis.
Most charter fleets in Greece are looking forward to minimize the current discounts – whenever the market will permit so.
So if anyone asks me what is the best time to book the right yacht for his sailing holidays at his preferred dates and sailing area, I will effortlessly advise him it is NOW !
