With the peak tourism season setting in, Greece is bracing for a record number of arrivals and is welcoming back Chinese tourists. The warm feelings follow a period of discontent due to COVID-19 pandemic restrictions placed on travelers from China for the past three years, and other issues.

On the cobblestone streets of Athens, tavern owner Spiros Bairaktaris spreads his arms wide open, welcoming news of what is already called the Chinese return.

He says, “We await them with great love, from the bottom of our hearts. We want to host them, to feed them, to offer all our services.”

All restaurants here, he says, are aching for their return.

While groups of Chinese travelers are just starting to trickle in, Greece expects the number to surge through the summer, exceeding the roughly 200,000 who visited the country ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In recent months, a flurry of meetings between Greek and Chinese officials has helped ease visa restrictions. Direct flights have resumed, but also increased in number and locations in a strategy to boost inflows of travelers from China,

Tourism accounts for more than a quarter of Greece’s economic earnings. And with forecasts predicting more than 30 million travelers this summer, business and officials here say that the Chinese return will help stoke the engines of this country’s lackluster economy after a decade-long recession and the pandemic.

“In the past, we have seen that average spending from our friends from China was even double [that of] European travelers to Greece,” said Sofia Zacharaki, the deputy tourism minister.

Such sweeping feelings of welcome and enthusiasm are new.

Just five years ago and ahead of the pandemic, many businesses and locals said they upset with what they called an over-saturation of Chinese travelers. Greeks pointed to what they say was an over-commercialization of mass Chinese weddings against iconic sunsets on popular islands like Santorini.

They also say that on Santorini and other islands, law enforcement, garbage collection and other services were overstretched… due to the influx of mainly Chinese visitors. Concerns were also raised about reckless construction as the host islands sought to accommodate the visitors.

And many locals began fearing that Chinese and other visitors were posing threats to social cohesion.

Whether such deep-rooted concerns will creep up again remains unclear.

For now, though, restaurant menus are being translated into Mandarin, shops are being festooned with Chinese flags and hotel employees, are learning Mandarin.

 
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German government officials and labor unions have reached a pay deal for more than 2.5 million public-sector workers, ending a lengthy dispute and heading off the possibility of disruptive all-out strikes.

The ver.di union had pressed for hefty raises as Germany, like many other countries, grapples with high inflation. Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said as the deal was announced around midnight Sunday that “we accommodated the unions as far as we could responsibly do in a difficult budget situation.”

The deal entails tax-free one-time payments totaling 3,000 euros ($3,300) per employee, with the first 1,240 euros coming in June and monthly payments of 220 euros following until February. In March, regular monthly pay for all will be increased by 200 euros, followed by a salary increase of 5.5% — with a minimum raise of 340 euros per month assured. The deal runs through to the end of 2024.

Ver.di originally sought a one-year deal with a raise of 10.5%. The deal was reached on the basis of a proposal by arbitrators who were called in after talks broke down last month.

Ver.di chair Frank Werneke said that “we went to our pain threshold with the decision to make this compromise.” He said that the raises in regular pay next year will amount to an increase of over 11% for most employees of federal and municipal governments.

The union has staged frequent walkouts over recent months to underline its demands, with local transport, hospitals and other public services hit.

Germany’s annual inflation rate has declined from the levels it reached late last year but is still high. It stood at 7.4% in March.

The past few months have seen plenty of other tense pay negotiations in Europe’s biggest economy, some of which have yet to be concluded. In a joint show of strength, ver.di and the EVG union — which represents many railway workers — staged a one-day strike last month that paralyzed much of the country’s transport network.

EVG, whose members walked off the job again on Friday, is seeking a 12% raise and has rejected the idea of negotiating a deal based on the arbitration proposal that helped resolve the public workers’ dispute. The next round of talks is set for Tuesday.

And ver.di is still in a dispute with Germany’s airport security companies association over pay and conditions for security staff. In the latest of a string of walkouts, it has called on security workers at Berlin Airport to walk out on Monday. The airport says there will no departures all day.
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За чинними нормами, дія тарифів для населення на рівні 1,44 грн/кВт-год і 1,68 грн/кВт-год (у разі споживання від 250 кВт-год на місяць) закінчується з 1 травня
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У публікації вказується, що Київ прагне повернути іноземні інвестиції в свій енергетичний сектор
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Раніше НКРЕКП заявила про позапланову невиїзну перевірку «Укренерго»
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