No tourists, no cafes, the empty streets of old Athens
No one’s been looking for souvenirs this fall in Athens’ oldest neighborhood, Plaka.
Its streets, existing long before the city imported a grid system, are lined with stores closed up behind aluminum shutters. The pandemic has kept tourists and afternoon strollers away.
Most of Athens’ historic center, Plaka and nearby districts in a semi-circle around the Acropolis, is unusually quiet ahead of Christmas.
Ancient monuments are a little easier to make out from a distance, fewer scooters are swerving around traffic, and cats parked at once-coveted spots in front of cafes are a little less aloof.
Outbreaks of COVID-19 prompted Greece to impose two countrywide lockdowns, in the spring, keeping infection rates low, and in the fall as authorities scrambled to cope with a rampant rise in cases.
The restrictions closed bars, restaurants, coffee shops, and many services considered non-essential but making up a large slice of Greece’s tourism-dependent economy.
The number of visitors traveling to the country plummeted by 76.1% on the year in the first 10 months of 2020. Spending also sank by 77%, according to central bank data released this week.
Greece is expected to see a 10.5% contraction of its gross domestic product this year, above the forecasted EU average of 7.4%, while its debt-to-GDP ratio is set to surge to a staggering 208.9%.
Text for AP News Story, No tourists, no cafes, the empty streets of old Athens.
Photos by Petros Giannakouris