ATHENS: It’s been some time since guests to Greece sought out souvenirs in Athens’ oldest neighborhood.
The winding streets of Plaka, laid out long before town imported a grid system, are lined with closed shops behind aluminum shutters.
The COVID-19 pandemic has kept travelers away from the historic city center that forms a semi-circle across the Acropolis, and the area remained unusually devoid of pedestrians and motorists earlier than Christmas.
Of their absence, historical monuments are a little easier to make out from a distance, fewer horns are sounding in visitors and homeless cats parked in the entrance of cafes are a little less aloof.
Greece so far has imposed two nationwide lockdowns because of the pandemic.
The first, within the spring, kept the nation’s infection rates low. Authorities ordered the second in response to a fast post-summer rise in reported cases and as of Christmas Eve has seen 4,4,57 confirmed virus-related deaths.
The restrictions have closed bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and many other businesses thought-about non-essential however which make up a big slice of Greece’s tourism-dependent economic system.
The number of guests touring the nation plummeted 76.1 percent throughout the first 10 months of 2020 in comparison with a yr earlier. Spending sank 77 percent, based on a central bank report launched this week.
Greece is anticipated to see a 10.5 percent contraction of its gross domestic product this yr in comparison with the forecasted EU average of 7. 4 percent, whereas its debt-to-GDP ratio is about to surge to a staggering 208.9 percent.
