Detour #8
Significant changes in transportation in Greece have occurred over the past two decades because of advances and improvements to its infrastructure. Although ferries are the primary means of transportation between islands, improvements of the road infrastructure and other transportation methods, such as rail and airplanes, have greatly increased. These changes have had a positive impact on Greece’s economy.
There are many international airports in Greece: Athens International Airport (ATH), Crete Heraklion Airport (HER), Corfu Kerkira Airport (CFU), Mykonos Airport (JMK), Kos Airport (KGS), Rhodes Paradisi Airport (RHO), and Thessaloniki Macedonia Airport (SKG). The airport departure tax is about 17 dollars for international arrivals and 11 dollars for domestic arrivals. Tourists most commonly use the Athens International Airport. Olympic Airlines is the most popular national airline and connects with domestic locations. There are very few rail connections to other countries and connections exist only between Macedonia, Bulgaria and Turkey, and Athens or Thessaloniki while domestic railway system is developed. Railway system is operated by the Greek train organization. However, recent innovations to the railway system have resulted in a more robust train system; the fruits of which is a train system that is cheaper than their bus system. Buses are the primary means of transportation among cities and have good connection of routes throughout the country. There are a number of international buses from Athens, Thessaloniki, and Karaiskaki to the main cities of the Balkans. The network of domestic routes is well developed as well. Plenty of buses connect between large cities, such as Athens, and towns and villages around the country. Car rental is another transportation method tourists can consider. However, non-EU citizens are required to have an international driver’s license. EU citizens may use their national driver’s license. Taxies are available everywhere in Greece and the fare of taxies is relatively reasonable. Ferries are the most popular transportation traveling to islands in terms of price and convenience. The primary international routes are between Ancona, Bari, Brindisi and Venice, Italy and the western Greece, and Turkey and islands of Dodecanese and eastern Aegean in Greece. There are also good connections to the various small islands.
If we were to be in charge of Marketing for our city in order to level all areas of transit I would make all of the areas equally accessible. Obviously there is no way to make them all the same price, air cost will always be the most expensive offer, but not always the only option. From what I have found from doing research on Greece and other destinations, many modes of transportation do not provide ample amounts of information. It is very easy and concise to find a flight but it isn’t nearly as easy to figure out what time the government bus leaves. I would attempt to level that playing field by making all government transportation as easily read and accessible to all travelers. Perhaps if travelers, especially those from out of the country, were informed about government transportation then hopefully they would take advantage of it.
Tourism and the transit of mass amounts of people has had both positive and negative impacts on the country. The tourism industry has contributed to problems such as congestion and environmental pollution, while bringing in billions of dollars. The impact on the environment, such as air pollution, has become a cause for concern. Policy makers are aiming to solve the problem by promoting railways as an alternative the road transportation. The communities have begun to set legislation and guidelines based on Environmental Impact Assessments, EIA, and adopt The Strategic Impact Assessment, SEA, which evaluates and managements how much human activities impact on the environment. Greece has highest accident rate compared with other