A disappointing statistic was released about museum visits this past weekend. The number of people visiting museums in Greece dropped by 44 percent in the first quarter of this year, reaching 327,000 as compared to 579,000 visitors during the same period last year, the National Statistics Service revealed yesterday.
The Museum at Ancient Olympia, whose site was ravaged by fire last summer, saw the largest drop, receiving 79 percent fewer visitors than last year.
Tourism has actually grown in the last year, so this drop seems strange to us.
When you visit Greece do you frequent museums?
posted on Monday, August 18
UndrOlvTree... ...while I agree that the grumpy bureaucrats and museau guards are off-putting and should hand over the reigns to some of the unemployed younger Greeks that perhaps would not mind working with tourists... i also think that there might be a drop of method to the madness of the timing... have you tried to climb delphia or walk through olympia in the middle of the sun-scorched afternoon in the summer?
Bel Ludovic... ...Might be something to do with poor facilities, ridiculously inconvenient and limited opening hours, striking staff, museums not being open during their stated times... etc.
jkots... ...The drop in visits is partly attributable to the ridiculous hours of operation at many key museums and archaeological sites. Are we trying to serve tourists here or keep government employees as comfortable as possible? Last year we tried to visit Mycenae but, despite showing up at 3:00pm, were turned away (along with at least 50 tourists who were not quite as forgiving as we were). At Phaestos in Crete last October we blitzed across the island at high speed to get there just 15 minutes before closing. We were made to pay a full entrance price by the grumpiest of bureaucrats, despite our cursory tour. You could say we should have been better organised, but closing at 1:00pm or 3:00pm is simply not realistic in a country where tourism is so critical to the economy.
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